Ahhh fall is in the air! The sweet smell of hot chocolate mixed with crisp leaves swirls around some. Others its the smell of ink, paper and character blood littering your desk. Yep, it's that time of year again, NaNoWriMo is in just a short 23 days from now!

Personally it just doesn't feel like NaNoWriMo is coming unless I'm re-re-re-reading No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty for the 20th time all of October (Just the first half of course, don't want to tear rifts in the time-space continuum. Those who read the book will get this.) I also like to read Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly by Gail Carson Levine. Those two off and on during the month seem to get me ready to just cream my novel.

I know some people who frantically plan out every ounce of their novel this month and others who sit back, relax and get ready to just write as you go style it. What do you do to prepare for this month of literary abandonment and insanity?

In case you need something to read that doesn't involve buying (or checking out at the library) some new books, here's a few websites and articles that may help you get planning:

1) thisblogisaploy.blogspot.com/2… - "How I went from Writing 2,000 words a day to 10,000 words a day"

2) thisblogisaploy.blogspot.com/2… - "How to plot a novel in 5 steps"

3) www.advancedfictionwriting.com… - Snowflake Method writing

4) www.superheronation.com/ - Super Hero Nation (good for supers yes but loads of general writing awesome)

5) writeordie.com/#Web+App - Write Or Die is the best self-word war machine ever

These are just a few to help people get started. If you have any websites or articles you find really helpful let me know in the comments and I'll add them up here for everyone to utilize!

Also anyone wanting to write a pep talk just let me know. Pick a week and write up a draft of something and note it to the group for consideration.

Happy Month Before NaNoWriMo!

AJ
That dreaded week two.

It's that week the old people talk about like a bad predictable annual storm as they close the hatches of their writing ship. It's that week for the newbies where they wonder why they got into this crazy idea and going back to actually sleeping and socializing (and probably showering) like a normal person again would be so much better.

Cue lighting, cue thunder, cue 80% of the writers quitting.

I want to start off with a story that I read a long time ago that sticks with me during week two.

Once upon a time there was a boy and his dog. This boy and his dog were close. They played together every day, the boy used the dog as a pillow, they went hunting together… you get the picture. They were inseparable best friends.

One day in winter, the boy went hunting out on the moor with his dog pal. As he was walking, he fell through some ice and got his feet stuck in a sink hole. He was up to his knees in muck and waist in frigid water. He fired his shot gun but in vain – he was too far out and no one could hear it. It was common to hear him shooting on the moor if anyone did hear.

The boy's only hope was that dog. He told the dog he had to go get help and finally the dog leaped off, knowing his boy was in trouble. They boy sat there and kept whispering an old proverb to himself “champions are made of pushing on that one second more.” He whispered this to himself over and over and over again as he fought off falling asleep and going into shock.

Long story short the dog got help and the boy was okay because he kept whispering that proverb to himself until help came, forcing himself to push on that one second more.

That's how this week will be. Right now you've just slipped into the ice. The next couple days are those when you fire that shot gun hoping your characters (or sleep deprived brain) will get you something worth writing again. Then you'll get a small idea, barely anything, and you'll have to send your trusted main character on ahead to get help while you push on just one word more.

For those that are new to this crazy adventure, week three is the best. Week three is where the magic happens and unfortunately so many of us quit. I know it's going to be hard and you might not write a day or two and get some word debt – but that's okay as long as you keep pushing on that one day more.

The key to surviving week two is to write a little every day. (Even if it's 42 measly words.) Just poke into your novel a little bit to keep yourself mentally and creatively attached.  Write what little you can to keep back that word debt and you'll be all the better off.

So go forth little writerlings and just keep pushing because Novelists come from that one word more.

-

If you're on julnowrimo.com you probably got this pep-talk in your email. I wrote it under my JulNo nickname. Hope you all enjoyed it if you got it there, if not enjoy it here and keep writing :)

AJ333
Hey guys! November's been a hectic month for me (and all of you I'm sure!) This is my first year writing a novel while being in a public school so it's been an insane challenge. Personally I was ready to quit Saturday and then on Sunday... I wrote 12,000 words! So it's not too late for you to catch up and push that extra little boost into your novel to win if you're behind. :la:

If you've already won or are right on track good for you. Go eat a cookie and get on with normal life. :XD:

Here's a few tips to boost that word count a bit and they're right out of the NaNoWriMo handbook... so not cheating! :shifty:

1) Open your novel and find the find-and-replace button. Take a name say Mary. Replace all Mary's with Mary Ellen. Viola you just doubled your character's name hence doubling your word count. Or if you have fantasy novel there's always something along the lines of "Sir evil overlord of the 7 deadly worlds of Killomonthernaigarain and ruler of all the lands". Or even just because you badly need the words you can do what I did to my character which was change her name from "Citadel" to "Citadel the fierce warrior that goes through a lot of bad stuff but finally finds true love in the end." If you're way behind or wanted to quit this is a great way to boost your WC so you can pull off an epic last minute win! :boogie:

2) De-hyphenate. Did you know that 'not-so-great-of-an-idea' only counts as one word? Delete all the -'s in your novel if you can! While this will loose you grammar points (psshhhh who needs grammar anyways?) it'll gain you more words. :eager:

3) Inflict one of your characters with deafness or a stutter! If they're deaf things have to be repeated over, and over, and over and over... (anything from wax in the ear to a loud rock concert the night before as the good NaNo book says.) Stuttering means they just have to keep saying words over and over and over. Instant word depth. :woohoo:

4) Add in a really long hallucination or dream that makes no sense, is completely random and maybe even just gibberish.  'Nuff said. :crazy:

5) Add in 'Blooper' chapters. They can span from anything to giving you two main OC's love potions, to writing in a star wars cameo to getting your MC roaring drunk to you going into the novel and getting beat up by your characters to The Ember Island Players (from Avatar Last Airbender) giving a horrible rendition of your novel's plot. The sky's the limit and these blooper chapters can be a great break from the main novel its self. :giggle:

If you've given up... come back and try to finish! Even if you don't hit 50k or your word goal, set a smaller one for yourself. Say you're at 15k, promise yourself to hit 25k by Friday just so you kept writing. If you're almost there, don't give up! If I can go from 16,000 words to 38,000 words in 4 days you can too! :party:

That's all guys, keep writing and keep being awesome!
Huzzah!:iconvikingplz:

AJ
Woot! November is finally here, hope you're all not getting too sick on NaNoWriMo eve candy~ (What is this 'Halloween' that you speak of? Psssshhh it's NaNo Eve, the time to thank the NaNo gods in hopes of a successful NaNo!)

Here are just a few tips from No Plot? No Problem! By Chris B, NaNoWriMo founder:

1. Get rid of your inner editor for the month and send it to the NaNo headquarter kennels. If needed draw a button on a piece of paper that says "Take my inner editor!" and push it, closing your eyes and letting it fade away. This really helps and it really works.

2. Don't let anyone (even yourself!) read your novel as you write it. This will just make you want to edit it to make it presentable to yourself and others. That will severely bog you down and suck you dry of all creativity faster than a spit sucker at the dentist. Avoid this at all costs, January is for editing and sharing anyways.

3. Don't get hung up on the first sentences or title. Just add them into the novel or document whenever they come to you, even if it's next May! Right now is about getting all the sloppy words that you can  out in one month and picking up the pieces of the novel later.

4. Use word wars, candy, write-or-die and bets to do dishes for a week to motivate you to hit your NaNo goals! Nothing like a little positive or negative motivation to get your fingers flying!

5. Just write! Even if you get writers block just open up a new document and type nonsense. It'll get you in the creative mood again, even if its a story about how you saved a unicorn from an evil bus driver by throwing your back pack at him. Anything to get you writing is good.

6. Build up that word cushion! You need to have almost 1/3 of your word count done by the end of the week so you have some wiggle room in the dark, depressing depths of week 2. Keep writing and use the weekend as a turbo booster to your word count!

Hope these little tips from the NaNo man himself help you out as you tackle this writing endeavor this month. Remember, you can write a pep-talk for the group if you want this month. Just note me about it before the last week :heart:

Happy NaNoWriMo!

AJ- Founder

P.S. I'll be clearing out the dead members sometime this week. If you don't want deleted please go here fav.me/d5hiw8p and comment with your user name on the YWP so a directory can be written!
I need you to comment here with your NaNoWriMo username.  Anyone who doesn't do this by November 1st (this gives you 3 weeks to leave a 10 second comment) then you will be removed from the group. This will do several things. First it will give us a list of who's who so we can connect here, on NaNoWriMo etc. Secondly it will clear dead members out of the group. Be sure to leave a quick comment saying who you are so you can be added to the list :heart:

Secondly, anyone interested in being an admin? There aren't really any duties right now so being an admin would basically put you in to help with ideas for the group, changes to it, help with special events, etc. Won't be a huge time commitment or anything but it'll be fun! :la:

I've got some fun ideas like member of the month and such based on the most active in the group, etc and other little feature fun stuffs. I need other ideas still though! Be sure to check out the Peptalks from you journal fav.me/d5hevbx because that'll gain you points for being member of the month ;)

That's all for now :)

AJ

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