The Final Stretch of #NaNoWriMo – 5 Tips to Get You Through

Well, as of today, there are only seven days left until your 50,000 words need to be verified to call NaNoWriMo 2016 a victory! How are you feeling? Are you powering through? Losing steam? Are you dumping coffee on your head in an effort to stay awake? I have confidence in your ability to complete this!

First, I want to tell you that no matter what, you’ve won this thing. Any words on the page is a success. Sure, if you complete 50K, you add a “Winner” sticker to your NaNoWriMo profile, but if you started with 0 words and ended with a mere 5K, that’s 5K more than you had in the beginning of the month! Congratulations!

Life gets in the way. Job, school, kids, Thanksgiving. All of it can affect your strategy to complete this crazy challenge. But you can do it. Just keep going!

So how can you make it through these final days, especially with a holiday thrown in there, if you’re in the states. Here are some tips:

  1. Write early. When you wake up Thanksgiving morning, before you throw that turkey in the oven and begin cleaning for guests, WRITE. Get your 1,667 words in. You may have more than that if you are aiming for 50K and are off track, but at least try for the minimum.
  2. Dictate. Dictation saves me when it comes to NaNoWriMo. I can speak faster than I can type, so if I dictate, I can get more words in. I simply use Evernote and dictate using my mic on my phone.
  3. Do small sprints. Not a football fan? Sprint during the game. Like to watch the game? Then do it during commercials. Do a sprint when you’re waiting for guests to arrive or when the rolls are in the oven. Even if you only have time for 200 words, if you do it multiple times, you’ll have 1000 before you know it.
  4. Skip ahead. Are you struggling to reach the minimum you need for the day? Write ahead. Skip the scene you’re stuck on and write the one you’ve been anxious to write. You can fill in the blanks later.
  5. Don’t panic. If you’re not validating before midnight on 11/30, don’t worry. It’s not as though your book will disappear because you didn’t finish it. December 1st is a new day, and you can start writing just as though it were November 1st. NaNoWriMo is about getting words on paper. You won’t publish your novel the second you finish it anyway (at least I hope not), so take your time and make it the best you can!

So, please, don’t worry that we’re in the homestretch. Don’t even look at the calendar. Just write.

Here are some other articles (old and new) to help you through:

38 Tips for Kicking NaNoWriMo in the Butt This Year

12 NaNoWriMo Tips and Tricks For Making It Through This Month

25 Things You Should Know About NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo Tips

How To Win NaNoWriMo

I hope you are able to validate with your 50K at the end of the month. Good luck to you, and please let me know how you’re doing!