Our favorite time of year is almost upon us! 'Tis the season of pumpkin pies, turkeys, and best of all NaNoWriMo! This year, the MCS editors have dared each other to take on the 50,000 word challenge, so we thought we'd share our top writing and editing tips to help you along with your own NaNo projects. So get your laptops ready and fat-pants on (hey, we plan on eating a LOT of candy this month) and lets get ready to NaNo!
PAULA: "Start with an outline. It doesn't need to be detailed and you don't have to follow it if you don't want to, but it's nice to have a map when you suddenly find yourself lost."
JESS: "Turn off your internet. If you're stuck for the next word, sentence, or plot point, checking Twitter is not going to help you. If you find yourself engaging in the endless Twitter/Facebook/email loop of doom, try one of the apps that will turn off the internet for you. I use Mac Freedom."
TARA: "If you have trouble connecting with a character, try getting into their head by playing songs they'd listen to or by having them answer fun, social-media style surveys. "
ELIZABETH: "If you're stuck on a scene, move on to the next one; you can always come back to it later. The Writing Police won't turn up at your door if you don't write your book in order. I'm forever writing scenes out of sequence, as it prevents boredom and gives me some breathing space to work out why the other scene isn't working."
PAULA: "Send your inner editor on vacation. When you're producing words at a rate of 1700 a day, they're not all going to be great. That's totally okay. Like I heard author April Henry say once: "You can edit crap. You can't edit nothing."
JESS: "If you're having trouble killing off your inner perfectionist - a must for drafting - try word sprinting with friends. See how much you can write in 30 minutes (or 45, or an hour) and then check in on Twitter to report your word count. Or if sprinting against others doesn't work, try Write or Die. If you stop typing for too long, this program will punish you with a reminder, a loud noise, or--in Kamikaze mode, which I find quite motivational!--by deleting your words!"
TARA: "Change your scenery. When you are stuck on a scene, go outside, to your favorite cafe/public hangout, or simply change rooms."
ELIZABETH: "Don't know how to start your novel? Don't waste time trying to come up with that killer opening as you'll be staring at your screen for days. Simply skip over your intro paragraph and start with paragraph two or three. Psychologically, it takes the pressure off trying to come up with that perfect opening and lets you get on with writing the story. You can come back to your opening paragraph(s) later, once you've settled into the flow of things."
We hope you found our tips helpful! Best of luck with your NaNo projects--do tweet us at @MS_Critiques to let us know how you're getting on! And while you're busy typing away on your NaNo project, now is the perfect time to get feedback on your other WIPs, so why not send them to us for a professional, affordable critique? We offer a range of services from 10-pages critiques to full line edits, all at reasonable prices! Check out our Services and Rates page for more information.