NaNoWriMo

@emily-d I did NaNoWriMo for the first time last year, though I’d done some camps before that. It’s a great way to get a lot done on a single project and it’s fun to be working with others with similar goals. The one major tip I would give is to figure out beforehand how much you need to do each day to get done in the month. That way you can work faster and know you are ahead, or you can do an extra day’s work and then take a day off.

@Emily-d, I’ve done NaNo proper once and the Camp once (and am thinking of doing it in July). In addition to what Hope and Jess have already said, I’d say to be sure your family knows what’s going on. It sounds like it should be obvious, but sometimes when you say “I’m going to be doing NaNo” they hear “I’ll be writing this month”, not necessarily “I’m going to be making writing more of a dedicated thing than ever for an entire month, and I may be displaying bewildering emotions, or giving up social time to catch up on word count.” So make sure they know how serious you are about this, enough to be giving your life to it already, but in a way that will affect them for the month, and make sure also that you, on your part, do have ordinate priorities, which includes giving time to your family once in a while.

I don’t really write on Sundays. I may write a little, if I get an idea, but I never make it something I need to get done on that day. And not because I’m a Sabbatarian, either. Six hours at church, plus calls to grandparents, plus animal chores, plus meals and showers, not to mention introvert exhaustion from the long day, make for enough to pack in all at once. During NaNo this means I write more per day than the suggested count, and then if I do spend time with my family (oh, I should have said this earlier, but by “time with family” I mean more than just eating a meal at the same table), it’s usually that day.

@Emily-D Hi Emily! First of all you should know that NaNoWriMo is extremely fun! Everyone has given great tips! (especially about letting your family know what’s really going on. Apparently I didn’t explain how /much/ I would be writing well enough to my family the first year I did NaNoWriMo. Suddenly they were very concerned about me becoming a hermit 😀 )
And persevere is a great word for NaNoWriMo. But don’t fret if you don’t meet your word count. Even if you don’t meet the 50,000 word goal by the end of the month, you’ve done something huge. You’ve written something!
My tip would be to sign up on the NaNoWriMo site. It keeps track of your progress and it’s super fun and challenging to watch your friends progress. (quite a few KeePers are on the NaNoWriMo site!) Here’s the link to the site:
And if you sign up, you can find me by the username Shelby Squirrel. 🙂
Hope that’s helpful!