Now that we’re in the final stretch of NaNoWriMo it’s more important than ever to stay focused. We live in a world where technology offers us an infinite number of distractions. Checking your phone, checking emails, updates, notifications; it’s a continuous...

Three weeks! Can you believe it?? Congratulations on making it this far! You’ve been working hard. The end is in sight and this is the final sprint. In these tips, we’ve talked a lot about the various effects of mental drain on your writing; all the different...

We’ve talked before about how much of time-suck research can be and why you should skip over it. However we didn’t really touch on HOW to skip over parts of your story. If no-one else is ever going to read your manuscript then you can just leave a note for yourself to...

Your brain moves a lot faster than your fingers. It’s something we all know, but it’s particularly clear during NaNoWriMo. You’ve got the perfect sentence in your head,  you type it out and then sit back to read it back. Suddenly you realize that you’ve skipped a few...

Part of NaNoWriMo is writing quickly. You’re pushing towards a word count every day and you simply don’t have time to agonise over every word. You have an image in your head that you’re trying to describe and you just want to get your readers to see that same image....

Say you’ve already reached your word count for the day, and you’re only halfway through your writing session. Brilliant! That means you can take the rest of the evening off, right? It’d feel relaxing to have some time off after two weeks of NaNoWriMo pressure. Don’t...

Has this ever happened to you: you’re in the zone, the NaNoWriMo words are flowing, then your character does something and you have to pause and think, ‘Is that right?’. Maybe your American protagonist is in Paris and he’s stopped to buy a snack. You write that he...

Everyone focuses on the problems of writer’s block. What is it, how you should avoid it, etc. What they don’t talk about is that writer’s block is not the only reason that a writer can stall. There are times when you can have all the ideas in the world you just don’t...

Wow, Congratulations!! You’re basically halfway through NaNoWriMo! Seems like only yesterday we were talking about finishing week 1. No matter what your word count is, you should be proud of yourself! Take a minute to bask in the feeling. It can be difficult for...

If you’ve been following our daily NaNoWriMo tips, you know that we love the idea of a writing schedule (we talked about it specifically on Day 10). The idea of setting aside a dedicated hour, or so, each day is great for really getting into a creative headspace....

You’re almost halfway through NaNoWriMo and you’re feeling pretty good. Over the last few days writing has been going well and you’ve written down lots of great ideas. But then something terrible happens. You open up your laptop, your hands hovering over the keyboard...

NaNoWriMo is supposed to be this intense month when you put aside all other distractions and focus on writing your novel. But, no matter how good your intentions are, life is never that simple. We can’t plan for all the emergencies that life throws our way and it’s...

So we’re halfway through the second week of NaNoWriMo. The first week passed in a flurry of ideas and creativity and planning outlines. That initial excitement is starting to fade and there’s still a long way to go. How do you keep up the momentum to continue writing...

So, we are well into week 2 (yikes!!). That means you’ve probably got some sort of outline for your NaNoWriMo story. You know what your plot is going to be. Maybe some minor details are still hazy but, for the most part, you know where this story is headed. You’ve...

We all know that the main goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words. The organisers of NaNoWriMo encourage you to write everyday and that every word that you write counts towards your 50,000 total. So that means that if you suddenly realize that the last paragraph...

We’ve made it the end of the first week of NaNoWriMo! Good job! Give yourself a pat on the back! The hardest part is over (seriously)! It might not feel like the hardest part is done, after all there’s still another three weeks to go, but I’m here to tell you that you...