NaNo Prep, Day 3-Change Your Mindset
Continuing on with our preparation for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I’ve got some tips to help you succeed.
Change Your Mindset
The main factor in succeeding for NaNo is your mindset. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words on a brand-new project. Take note that the goal is NOT 50,000 perfect words that create an instant best-seller novel. No, the goal is 50,000 words only. Throw perfection and quality out the door. You are going for quantity alone.
This is a hard concept for a lot of writers. You don’t want to write dreck. You struggle to find the right words, the best words when you write. You don’t intentionally write poorly. (Though it sometime seems that way when you stop to re-read your efforts.)
But for NaNo, you need to be able to write with speed, especially if you have a busy life and limited free time to get your 1,667 words written each day. Speed means not being afraid of writing poorly. Let yourself write poorly, just get the words down on the page.
No Editing!
As writers know, a blank page is useless. You need words on the page to begin revising to make your story the best it can be. NaNo is a great opportunity to complete a raw, rough draft of your novel (or most of your novel since 50,000 words is a pretty short novel).
Your goal is to get the 50,000 words done. You can’t do that if you tinker with what you have already written to phrase it just a little bit better. Keep reminding yourself the goal is to get to 50,000. You can edit as much as you want AFTER you are finished. Just get the story written!
Next up, more tips to help you reach 50,000!
Have writer friends who might enjoy this post? Send it to them with my compliments! And add me as a writing buddy at nanowrimo.org so I can follow your progress in November!
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