Everybody writes differently. But, a writer will write differently when facing a deadline, especially if he/she is under a lot of pressure and stressed out. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which means that, if you’ve decided to be participant, you will write a novel within four weeks. That sounds extremely stressful, but if you start on time and have a good writing plan, a concrete idea, and a decent plot, it’s totally doable. However, today, we are not focusing on how to write during NaNoWriMo. We are focusing on how to keep writing – every month – as if it is NaNoWriMo. And below, we have some tips to help you achieve that level of productivity, or if not, to at least be close to it. It will certainly help you write your stories and novels faster.
1. Set up a daily word limit
Setting up a daily limit can both motivate you to reach that word limit, and infuriate you if you realize in the middle of the day that you’re falling behind. To ensure you never get blocked by the daily limit, take notes of how many words you write per day during NaNoWriMo. Then, use the numbers to get a feel of the average number of words you write per day during the NaNoWriMo period, and use it as your daily limit. Another method to avoid stress because of the word limit is to lower it down a bit, if you have noticed that you cannot reach that limit for several days in a row.
2. Keep up weekly limits
If you dislike having a daily limit, you can choose the weekly word limit instead. It gives you a lot more freedom – if you didn’t write as many words as you needed today, you can make it up tomorrow, or even the day after. Rushed writing, and writing under pressure might not give you the best results – in fact, you might end up having to edit a lot in order to achieve perfection. Having a weekly word limit decreases the pressure somewhat, and ensures that your writing is better.
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3. Take a day off
Don’t forget to set up a day of the week when you can rest. This day will probably come naturally as you write, the day when you simply cannot produce good quality writing. Mark the day when it happens, or the day when you’ve had the lowest word count, and use that day to rest. Remember, you will be more productive if you’re rested, and keep yourself healthy, instead of being stressed and writing all of the time.
4. Write first, edit later
One thing that might cause blocks during NaNoWriMo is thinking you need to edit as you go. The best thing you can do is to edit later, instead of going back to make minor changes. If, however, you feel you have to edit parallel as you write, then the best time to do this is every morning, before you begin to write for the day. You can edit and go over what you’ve written the previous day – and this has a double benefit. The first is you will be able to continue from where you’ve left off the previous day, and the second benefit lies in the possibility to experiment. For example, you can take note of writing mistakes you did the previous day and see if you can improve on them the following day.
5. Keep it going
Take notes of your habits, both in writing and other activities, during NaNoWriMo that have helped you write better. And, continue using those habits to help you write better all of the time. Remember, you don’t have the time limit of one month to write a novel, which takes off the pressure and ensures your writing will be both better and faster. Do not abandon those habits just because you don’t have to write a novel in a month – keep it going instead, and you will find yourself being more productive writing wise. And the more you write, and the more you write daily, the better you will get.
Image credit: Bill Selak on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/photo.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Georgina Roy wants to live in a world filled with magic. As an art student, she’s moonlighting as a writer and is content to fill notebooks and sketchbooks with magical creatures and amazing new worlds. When she is not at school, or scribbling away in a notebook, you can usually find her curled up, reading a good urban fantasy novel, or writing on her laptop, trying to create her own.
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