Guest Post by Kristen Strassel: Standing on the Sidelines During NaNoWriMo

I didn’t Nano. But I still learned something standing on the sidelines.

Hi, everyone!  I’m Kristen and I’m stepping in for Andrea for a couple of posts.  This site offers such good, real, in the trenches advice and I hope you’ll all get something out of what I have to say! I’m currently writing my third book in a series, and I’m always amazed how no three books are ever alike. Even if I wrote all three of them.

Sometime around mid-October, I could feel the anticipation and anxiety level of my writing friends rise. It was time to hunker down and get ready for Nanowrimo.

I never had any intentions of participating. I was already ankle deep into my current manuscript. I was under the impression that all Nano projects had to be started from scratch, even though I did see a few authors use it to accelerate what they were working on. Plus, I know myself. As much as I fantasize about 50,000 words in a month, that’s what it is for me. A fantasy.  I edit a lot as I write, I need time to visualize my next scene. While I have a number I like to hit each time I sit down to write, I knew all those added up over the month of November would never equal 50,000.  

For me, I knew stressing over a number would make my writing suffer. But I decided to keep track of what I did for the month anyway, just to see how I stacked up.  I found out that numbers do matter. I still wanted to keep up with the Joneses. There were days I could have pushed off writing that I sat down and cranked out a couple thousand words.  So far this month, I’ve hit about 25,000. Having a monthly goal in addition to a daily goal for me did make a difference. 

So many people woke up in the middle of the night to write, worked tirelessly on their manuscripts on their days off, and made those words happen!  That’s amazing. But watching some of the extreme things writers did to get those words reminded me of a crash diet. Sure, they’ll get 50,000 words in November, but what’s going to happen in December? That’s a tough pace to keep up forever. Like dieting, everything in moderation works for me.  I know I can commit to 1500 to 2000 words a day, minimum. Life doesn’t let me write every day, but I have to write every day life lets me. 

During Nano, you are instructed to go forward and create words. Don’t look back. I saw one author won Nano while still calling a character “Name?” That gave me a panic attack!  Before I write a manuscript with new characters, I need to draw up a character profile. When I sit down each day to write, to get into the mood, I review my last session. These are things that work for me. I’m not willing to give them up and that’s okay. We’re all different. As long as each one of us eventually types “the end,” we’re all doing it right. 

I’m so impressed with everyone who’s hitting that 50,000 word mark.  Finishing anything you set out to do is a huge accomplishment.  Even if you don’t “win,” if you love your project and got anything out of National Novel Writing Month, you still “won” as far as I’m concerned. 

Want more of Kristen? You can check out her book, BECAUSE THE NIGHT, right over here and follow her on Twitter for extra awesome! 

How to Write When You Feel Like Death

Hey all,

If you've been hanging out on Twitter recently, you may have noticed that I am not there. This is a bit of a travesty, guys, because I love it there and I miss you all. But see, I'm two weeks max away from delivering my second baby, and I basically feel like death warmed over. All day. Everyday.

I'm also doing NaNoWriMo.

So there really is only so much energy allowance I have per day, and I know that I burn most of it up by 6pm. Therefore, between the hours of 6am and 6pm, I know I have to work, take care of my other slightly needy kid, and write for NaNo. Twitter is on the back-burner for now.

Which brings me to this list here that I compiled. Even though I haven't been actively tweeting, I have been stalking all of your feeds and watching you ratchet up your word counts through the insanity that is NaNo. I've also seen a few of you get the flu, start feeling run down, and just downright burnt out. That is so sad, and I feel you. My word count is abysmal at this moment. But if you're struggling with feeling awful and still have the drive to finish, I have a few tips I've picked up from my author friends and from my own experience (I was in a similar situation last year and still managed to finish!).

Let Go of Your Story: I know the point of NaNo is to complete a draft of something or other in 30 days. But I find that if I tell myself it has to be this draft, in this way, I close off all the creative floodgates when I need them most. And let's be honest, you need as much excitement and creative power as possible right now to carry you through the next fifteen days of this marathon. So feel free to give yourself some space. That plot bunny that's come up during the first half of this? Follow it down the hole. That short story you've been wanting to finish? Do it. Writing is writing, and writing is more fun when you're doing it passionately. So bring some life back into this race when you're not feeling at your best but you still want to reach the finish line.

Write or Die. Sometimes It Feels Like They Take That Literally: I love Write or Die for certain situations, like when I've planned out the next scene pretty meticulously and I know I can whip through it with a little help from Write or Die, and I feel like the words will still be decent ones. However, this is a code red situation, and you may not feel up to putting in anymore effort into planning for this story on top of actually writing it. So just turn that sucker on in kamikaze mode, and write. And don't care if they're shitty. I swear, don't. It's about survival right now, remember?

Small Chunks Are Key: Part of the reason my word count is awful is because I haven't tallied up all of my words scattered over my iPad, phone, and various notebooks yet. I write whenever I feel a tiny bout of energy bubbling up, and I write for literally five minutes (or until that energy evaporates. Sometimes it's three minutes). I don't usually operate like this, and it's kind of tough for me. I like to write in looooong stretches, because I can feel myself getting better as the time goes on. I run the same way. But when you're not feeling like your most awesome self, feel free to write for five minutes here, ten minutes there. It makes the task less daunting, plus you'll be surprised how much you actually get done throughout the day.

Rewards and Rest: I've written about rewards are rest on my personal blog before, but I'm just going to reiterate it here: you're not going to want to do this when you feel like crap if there isn't some kind of reward in it for you. I'm not talking about intrinsic rewards, the "Oh, but I feel so accomplished ones!" No. That may work when you're not stressed and sick, but that is not going to fly right now. I reward myself with Tums. How pathetic is that? But it works. My conversation with myself goes something like this: "I know you have terrible heartburn right now, but I need you to write in this notebook for five more minutes. I'll set a timer. When you're finished, you get some sweet, sweet relief in the form of Berry Smoothie Tums, mmk?" If you're not into the whole depriving your body of medicine and pee breaks tactic, try something else you want just as badly: a twenty minute nap, a fifteen minute browse on Pinterest, a latte, a cookie, whatever. I'm serious. Whatever works.

So there you have it! By the way, these tips don't just apply to NaNo. I also use these when I'm feeling under the weather or stressed any time of the year and there's a deadline I'm trying to meet. Anyway, I know you guys can do this! See you at the finish line!

Andrea Hannah is a YA writer represented by Victoria Marini of Gelfman Schneider. Her debut novel, OF SCARS AND STARDUST, is coming from Flux in Fall 2014. She writes stories about criminals, crazy people, and creatures that may or may not exist. When she's not writing, Andrea teaches special education, runs, spends time with her family, and tries to figure out a way to prevent her pug from opening the refrigerator (still unsuccessful). Oh, and she tweets a bajillion times a day, mostly about inappropriate things.

You can find her on Twitter @: http://twitter.com/andeehannah

Drop her an email @: andreahannahbooks@gmail.com
And visit her website @: http://www.andreahannah.com/

Revision Tools from Alex's Nano Rebellion

Hey guys! Hope writing's going well, especially if you're doing NaNoWriMo. :)

For my NaNo project this year, I'm trying something new. Instead of writing 50k words in a first draft, I'm cutting and rewriting 50k words in the manuscript I've been revising.

It's been challenging to get through the first week, but revising under time pressure has taught me a lot about my own editing process, so I'm sharing what I've learned thus far. Whether you're rebelling and revising with me, revising as you write, or looking for ideas for December's edits, hopefully there's something in here that can help you out.

When I use a feeling by name, I double-check that I'm not telling in that sentence. 

One of the really awkward things about revising is reading over all the stuff you thought was super hot, and then cringing when you spot all the telling you're doing. Naming emotions tends to get me into trouble. Unless you're doing an awesome take on feelings like Kelsey and personifying emotions *obligatory Fear fangirl moment* or inside a character's head, dialoguing, or something to that effect, then chances are these emo-nouns are telling where there needs to be showing.

And when you start looking for them, it's kind of intimidating. Because they're EVERYWHERE.

oh god not you again

Most of the adverbs that I cut are things like "angrily" or "quizzically" or "vehemently"-- all of which aren't that needed if I'm making my dialogue convey the rage, confusion, or urgency it should. Sometimes it's fine (my rule of thumb is that in dialogue anything goes), but I don't want things like "His fear was becoming suffocating." or "Love wasn't something he had time for." making it to the next draft. That's the telling that I want to get rid off.

Minor characters are where it's at.

One of my CPs and I regularly geek out over how awesome minor characters are. Why? These are people you added to your story to accomplish a certain function, but in true writerly sleight of hand you can't let the reader know that. So, you do the only thing you can do, which is to make them utterly amazing and hilarious.

While my main pair is busy with their own problems:

My minor characters are also busy:

"I'm sorry, are you having an emotional conflict? I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am."

What's great about minor characters is the amount of freedom you have. Maybe you just need one around as a benchmark for how much your protagonist has changed, but don't let that stop you from making them awesome. My favorite dude in this manuscript is my main character's father-- I love snarky, angry people, and this guy is such a guilty pleasure to write that whatever scene he comes into he pretty much steals the limelight (and all the olives out of the fridge). 

Taking another look at diversity.

The story I'm revising is a contemporary taking place in the present. I want to be sure that my manuscript accurately reflects the people you'd find if you went there-- whether it's the race demographic or LGBT characters. And yeah, I'm a white, straight girl trying to write characters that aren't those things. I'm really nervous about messing up. I'm completely prepared for someone to tell me that I'm doing everything wrong, and that I am exactly zero, none, no good.

my feels

But more than I'm anxiety-attacking about offending every person ever, I know I can write human beings. I can write angry people (see hilarious angry father a few paragraphs ago). I can write serious, pragmatic, but secretly goofy people, and I can also write happy people hiding a deep sadness. I can research my heart out. And maybe (probably) I won't get it exactly perfect, but I'd rather try than stop myself because I'm too afraid I'll fail.

Revisions are my time to tighten up character identities and push myself. If you're also writing diverse characters, needing/wanting ideas or help, and not yet checking out the cool stuff that Diversity in YA is doing, get on that! They are awesome. :)

Beat management-- aka, no one shakes their head that much in real life. 

I love my dialogue tags, but a lifetime of watching TV shows has made beats an integral part of my writing. I swear, most of the things that I am cutting out of this manuscript are "She nods." or "He blinks." Don't get me wrong, I love beats. But relying too much on the quick, two-word ones sometimes makes your poor characters end up like this:

"But you need to know it's me doing the speaking, so here you go."

I feel like I'm writing the reaction gifs of my characters sometimes, and sometimes that needs to get pared down or re-modded. I really like having my characters do things while they're talking, so I can use the beats to have them accomplishing different tasks-- like putting a straw into a juice carton or climbing up trapdoors-- instead of always nodding along or staring incredulously.

Research is fun. Also, addictive. Also, the internet is scary. 

I've never been to the city where my manuscript is set, but I have Google Maps'd that place and gotten an idea of the local layout. I've researched weather conditions, local landmarks, and cool places for the characters to explore. Have I gone on streetview along neighborhoods to get an idea of what it looks like to walk through it? Yeah. Have I picked out a real house I think would be totally perfect for my main character? Yes. 

Is it creepy and insane that we have the technology for me to do this?

Cut the superfluous stuff and get to the magical cookies. 

Susan Dennard has a great post on this-- pretty much, if you're not excited to write a scene, your readers aren't going to be excited to read it either. It's like you're constantly at war for being the most awesome thing on your reader's mind. 

Kill every darling. 

Slay them. If it sounds cute, it gets cut. I keep my cuts in a separate document (which is how I'm keeping track of my word count for NaNo), so it's not like any darlings are killed forever. But more often then not, when I read through things in my cuts doc I can see why they were too weak to stay in the draft. If it can't hold its own in the manuscript, if my liking it is the only reason it's in here, then it has no place in the final version. It's tough love, but it's making the story better. 

Any darlings left must be at least this fabulous.

And that's my report from revision land. How are your NaNoWriMo projects going, guys? Or if you're revising like me, share your favorite tricks for gettin' it done. :)

When Alex Yuschik isn't writing her next YA novel, she's working on someone else's as an intern at Entangled Publishing. She writes about lock picks, ghosts, the abandoned places in cities, and how not to strike bargains with stars. Between sneaking in time to game and rocking out to indie music, Alex spends the rest of her free time working towards her PhD in mathematics. You know, as one does.

You can find her on Twitter @: http://twitter.com/alexyuschik

Or drop her an email at: alex.yuschik@gmail.com

And also visit her website @: alexyuschik.blogspot.com 

October Updates from the Writing Community

Hi, guys!

October flew by, yes? And I bet November will be the same with so many of us participating in NaNoWriMo. I know I sure missed a lot of awesome stuff that happened in October! So if you're like me, here's a little snippet of what's been going on the last couple of weeks around the Twittersphere.

• Our Secret Life buddy, Gail Nall announced her book deal for her middle grade debut, DON'T FALL DOWN! For more updates from Gail, check out her site (linked above) or follow her on Twitter.
• Amy Lukavics also announced the sale of her YA book, DAUGHTERS UNTO DEVILS, to Harlequin Teen! You can follow Amy on Twitter here.
• The finalists for our Spooky Flash Fiction contest are up and ready for your vote. There are only three days left to vote, so help us hook one of these writers up with some swag and pick your favorite! 

NaNoWriMo:

Ah, the topic du jour. Here on the Secret Life blog, we have some of our own golden posts chock full of tips and tricks for surviving NaNo. (You can find them all here, linked at the bottom of Farrah's post). But I've done a little perusing myself in prep to conquer NaNo again this year, and I've found some gems in case you're looking for some extra support this November: 

• A word of advice from agent Sarah LaPolla on NaNoWriMo, and how to go about making your NaNo novel sparkle before you query it.
• Practical advice (like how to guarantee you'll take pee breaks!) during NaNoWriMo from Angi Black. 
• Gearing up for NaNo tips from Pen and Muse. 

• And this guest post on the NaNo blog, from me. It's one of my favorite blog posts I've ever written, and I hope that it'll keep you going when you hit Week Two sludge. 

Happy writing!

xo. 

Andrea Hannah is a YA writer represented by Victoria Marini of Gelfman Schneider. Her psychological thriller, OF SCARS AND STARDUST, debuts from Flux in Fall 2014. She writes stories about criminals, crazy people, and creatures that may or may not exist. When she's not writing, Andrea teaches special education, runs, spends time with her family, and tries to figure out a way to prevent her pug from opening the refrigerator (still unsuccessful). 

You can find her on Twitter @: http://twitter.com/andeehannah

Drop her an email @: andreahannahbooks@gmail.com
And visit her website @: http://www.andreahannah.com/

8 Fun #NaNoWriMo Must-Haves

Have you noticed the theme we've had on the blog for the last few posts? I think it's safe to say we're all a little #NaNoWriMo crazy. CRAZY EXCITED.

So just for funsies, I put together this super serious* list of must-have things you need before you begin your NaNo-ing.

*lol yeah right

1. Sweatpants. This girl is rockin' hers. Just look at that NaNo game face. IT'S ON, WORDS. But lets be honest here. The writing world is a pants-optional environment. Go with what's comfortable for you.

2. A Word-Goal Cheerleader. Here's a picture of mine. Make sure this cheerleader is super supportive of you and your NaNo goals. Or a cheerleader who just gives lots of cuddles. You know, whichever. 

3. Organizational tools. Are you a multi-hilighter/rainbow tabs/sticky note kind of person? These are perfect planning tools for NaNo. And if you're a pantser, that's okay too. We can write each other pretty notes with our multiple colored gel pens. 

4. Music. Put your favorite jams on to get you in the writing mood. Pandora is my weapon of choice, always.

5. SNACKS. Don't go hungry mid-writing sprint. Stock up on those munchies! 

6. Computer charger. Do you know how annoying it is to sit down, get comfortable and halfway through a GOOD part in your story realize that your battery is at 9% and OMG where the *$%@ is your charger? From someone who does this almost weekly, it's highly annoying. Keep that charger near you at all times. 

7. FUEL UP. Coffee is my substance of choice.

8. THIS. Because who has time to get up and pee when you're in the zone, man? 

What are your NaNoWriMo must-haves? Feel free to share in the comments! And to all you NaNo-ers, good luck!

Oh and PS, here's a round up of all our NaNoWriMo posts this month:

• Tips for Preparing for NaNoWriMo
• A NaNo Pep Talk
• 10 Tips to Help You Make it Through NaNoWriMo

Farrah Penn enjoys staying up way too late and making up for it in large quantities of coffee. On top of her love for reading books with memorable characters, she also enjoys internet memes, yoga, and her adorably bratty dog. When she’s not rushing to complete marketing projects at work, she’s writing and daydreaming about traveling the world. Farrah writes YA and is represented by Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary.

You can also find her on Twitter @: https://www.twitter.com/farrahwrites
Drop her an email @: farrahnicolepenn@gmail.com
And visit her blog at: http://www.farrahpenn.com

10 Tips to help you make it through NaNoWriMo

So you've decided to take the plunge and go for NaNoWriMo this year. Good for you! Whether you win or not, you're challenging yourself and pushing your creative limits, and that earns you a hearty round of applause from me.

Now that we've got the pep and fanfare out of the way, let's look at what you can do to increase your writing productivity and stay motivated, whether it's in November (or, really, any month of the year).

1. Twitter sprints

Are you on Twitter? (If not, get thee to Twitter, Ophelia. There's a great writing community there just waiting to be all supportive, give you good publishing advice--indie or traditional, and also show you cute pictures of baby animals when you're down.)

It's true that the writers over there are pretty fab. What's also pretty fab about Twitter in November is the sheer amount of word sprints and sharing of prompts--whether it's word prompts, art, or music-- that goes on. You can find a word sprint, which is a timed interval during which you write like a crazy person and then tweet the number of words you wrote at the end of sprint, at almost any time of the day or night now. Here are a couple of accounts that I know do word sprints:

@NaNoWordSprints

@FriNightWrites (keep an eye out for their event to help kick off Nano!)

@5amWritersClub (Secret Lifer Heather helps run this, so say hi!)

2. Wake up early, stay up late-- find your groove.
Make extra time for yourself to get your word count in. It's like having homework every day in November, which is great, but if you already have a lot of homework due in November, then sometimes it's hard to juggle another subject thrown in.

I tend to wake up about a half an hour earlier (or more if my sleep-deprived, grad student body can take it) to squeeze in some extra words before I have to start my day. Sometimes I make word count and sometimes I don't, but I at least can kick off the day creatively and I'm less worried when I get back home from school about making word count because I'll already have made a good start on it.

Find a time that works for you. Whether it's waking up to sprint at 5am on twitter, or holing yourself up in a coffee shop or library for an hour, or just taking time to yourself before sleeping, set aside time to do your writer thing. Try not to force yourself to fight for time to write-- you already have enough stress with the volume of work that you're expecting yourself to produce. 

3. Victoria Schwab and the Star Stickers: Adventures in Meeting Word Count
Okay, so I'm kind of a huge Victoria Schwab fan (read VICIOUS if you haven't already, by the way, it's ridiculously good). In the video below, she explains her method of giving herself stickers as rewards for meeting her word count goals, and this can easily be adapted to NaNoWriMo. Buy yourself a pack of stickers (and maybe some special, super rad looking ones, too, for those days when you have to bust some serious word count moves) and fill your calendar up with awesome.

4. Reread before you restart. 
Oldie, but a goodie. If you're stuck try rereading what you wrote the day before to get yourself back into the story. Especially if you're writing in dual POV, or have multiple narrators, I can guarantee that there will be times when you will forget what someone sounds like. And that's okay-- that's why we have revision. But if you're not entirely sure what you were thinking when you added in that side character who magically is now the Love Interest and also has his own POV, then skip back and reread his entrance again.

Chances are that you'll be thinking about your writing all throughout the day, but it's always helpful to ground yourself in a scene. 

5. Ernest Hemingway's Trick 

The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it.

Obviously, don't stop in the middle of a scene when you're on fire-- finish that sucker. But if you've just finished something that you're proud of and you have a good idea of what you want to happen next, leave it for tomorrow and let your subconscious figure out where the story ought to go from there. This is easily one of my favorite tricks.

Want some more writing tips from Hemingway? You got it.

6. Get your CPs into the game, or find a writing friend. 
Have a contest between your CPs, or just find them on the NaNo site and then bother them on gchat if they aren't keeping up with their word count. What makes NaNo work for me is that I know that there's a huge group of writers out there who will cheer/cajole/prod me into crossing the finish line. We did our Buddy Project match-ups earlier, so if you got a buddy from us, let us know how you guys weather NaNo! :)

7. Use writing prompts. 
I got into writing (and finishing!) longer stories in high school thanks to fan fiction and writing tables, like those at fanfic100. I'd know that I wanted to write stories about characters and have some vague ideas, but what really helped me nail down scenes was having prompts to fixate on. You can scour LJ for some great writing communities with cool prompts, or you can leaf through books of poetry or novels and pick out random phrases that inspire you.

Other prompts that are awesome are pictures and music. Pinterest is a great source of visual information. If you're an audiophile, then maybe consider writing a chapter inspired by each song from an album by your favorite band. Word sprint leaders will often throw out prompts of all kinds, too.

If you know what you want to write now, great! Think about all the scenes that get you revved up about starting this manuscript, then write brief sketches of them down on index cards or post-its, or in a notebook, and then save them for when you get stuck. Whenever you feel like your idea sucks and why on earth are you even bothering to write it, pull out those ideas and remember how excited you were to start this project. Then, maybe write one of those scenes. 

8. Go to a write-in.
Taking yourself to a cafe is awesome, so why not meet up at a cafe with fellow writers? Get excited about writing, meet people, and you might also score some sweet stickers from your ML. :) Find your home region on the NaNo forums and get to it!

9. Butt in chair, hands on keys.
Ultimately, making it through NaNoWriMo in one piece is a lot of BICHOK-- you just have to put the time in and write. Use prompts, use music, use whatever you have to to make it. One of my big strategies for getting through being stuck at this point is jumping around in time-- if I'm not inspired to write the scene that I'm writing, then I'll skip to one that I am inspired to write about and come back to what I was working on before later.

Still want some help with this? Check out Susan Dennard's excellent NaNo Boot Camp forums.

10. Enter writing contests.
Like ours!  The more writing you do, the better you're going to get. Give yourself a warm-up for NaNoWriMo by entering our Halloween contest and flexing your creative muscles.

Best of luck writing, and happy November, guys!

When Alex Yuschik isn't writing her next YA novel, she's working on someone else's as an intern at Entangled Publishing. She writes about lock picks, ghosts, the abandoned places in cities, and how not to strike bargains with stars. Between sneaking in time to game and rocking out to indie music, Alex spends the rest of her free time working towards her PhD in mathematics. You know, as one does.

You can find her on Twitter @: alexyuschik

Or drop her an email at: alex.yuschik@gmail.com

And also visit her website @: alexyuschik.blogspot.com 

A NaNo Peptalk

It's coming up on the week before NaNo and I'm getting pumped! A reminder: Farrah did an awesome post about dealing with NaNo which you should read because it's, well, awesome.

I'm just going to go ahead and admit something up front: I have never "won" NaNo. I've tried two or three times and each one of those times I blew it. I have plenty of excuses as to why I never finished before, but I'm not even going to mention any because I don't want to put those thoughts in your head or mine. Instead, I want to suggest a game plan for this coming week.

1. Get ready to have fun! First and foremost, don't let this endeavor stress you out too much. Writing should be fun, especially first drafts, in my opinion. It should be done with a heart full of love and excitement. Yeah, that sounded a little cheesy, but I stand by it.

2. Immerse yourself in this new idea. Wallow in it. Create a Pinterest board and a playlist. Cast the actors who will star in the movie adaptation. Throw together a mock cover. Jot down scene ideas, figure out your one sentence pitch, and maybe even put together the first draft of a query.

And most importantly: 3. Commit. Do not waffle. Tell your friends and family that this is what's happening and you're going to need their support. NaNo is a big exercise in commitment and this year you can prove to yourself that you can do it.

So, are you ready?! Share your plans for this week in the comments. Link us you your Pinterest board! Let's get excited! *cue Rocky montage*

Tips for Preparing for NaNoWriMo!

#NaNoWriMo begins in exactly 15 days.

Are you ready?

Neither am I, but unfortunately I don't think I'll be participating this year. I have 100 more pages of my book to rewrite and revise. BUT I participated last year and even though I didn't finish all 50k words, I still thought it was really encouraging! 

Today I'm here to give you some pre-NaNo organizational advice. 

1. Outline. Everyone will tell you this, but it really helps. Having a general idea of where you want your book to go saves you from staring at a screen midway through your NaNo-ing and going . . . um, now what? If you're anything like me, you'll have an outline and completely change scenes and situations around. That's fine too. As long as you have some sort of guideline, you'll be more than set. Also? Start outlining now!

2. Don't get caught up with your word count. Okay yes, I know NaNo is the time to really keep track of your words, but November is also a really busy time of year. Thanksgiving, preparing for Christmas, seeing family and friends, etc. Personally, I don't think you need to sacrifice seeing the people you love to get some words on a page. You'll always have more time to double that count on another free day of yours. And if you don't? That's okay too! At least you're trying :) 

3. Stop being a perfectionist. The beauty of NaNoWriMo is that is allows you to word vomit all up in your document so that you can add in all those details later on. NaNo isn't the time to go back and tweak every paragraph you write. Concentrate on that during your revisions. 

4. Don't. Query. Your. NaNo. Everyone will tell you this. Despite what you think, it's not a good idea. Who wants to read word vomit? No one. Clean that up first, then send it to your CPs. (BTW, Alex just wrote a fantastic CP post. It's magical). If you don't do this, everyone in publishing will hate you. (Okay, maybe they won't hate you, but they will want to slap you with wet noodles)

Good luck to all you NaNo-ers! 

Farrah Penn enjoys staying up way too late and making up for it in large quantities of coffee. On top of her love for reading books with memorable characters, she also enjoys internet memes, yoga, and her adorably bratty dog. When she’s not rushing to complete marketing projects at work, she’s writing and daydreaming about traveling the world. Farrah writes YA and is represented by Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary.

You can also find her on Twitter @: https://www.twitter.com/farrahwrites
Drop her an email @: farrahnicolepenn@gmail.com
And visit her blog at: http://www.farrahpenn.com