At the end of October, we looked at ten ways to win NaNoWriMo. Now, reality has set in. We’re halfway through the month. Maybe you started off strong, but the excitement is starting to wane. Maybe life has begun to interfere. Maybe, like me, the first third of the month held exciting writing-related events that you’d been looking forward to for months, and now that those much-anticipated events are over, it’s hard to feel motivated.
It’s time for thoughts to shift. How can you survive NaNoWriMo? How can you drag yourself to the finish line without being defeated by the exhaustion of daily life and the heaviness of the world? How can you celebrate the joy of this month of unbridled word-slinging when you’re tired and the days are short and dark?
Here are a few ideas to pep up your mojo:
1. Make a playlist.
Music is a great motivator and mood lifter. It can also be a boon to creativity. Create a playlist that matches the vibe of your WIP, or one that lifts your mood and energizes you, or one that makes your fingers fly across the keyboard faster. Better yet, bust out your favourite bops and just have a dance break.
2. Interview a character.
Sit down for a coffee with one of your characters and ask them a bunch of nosy personal questions. Write it as you go and count it all towards your word count. Make it silly or serious, trivial, or profound. This different approach to writing might kickstart your inspiration again.
3. Look at something inspiring.
Draw inspiration from other mediums. Think non-literary sources like art, music, television. These can provide fresh perspective and a welcome rest from words on a page.
4. Tell your inner editor where to go.
At this point in the month, you need all the words you can get. Tell that critical voice that thinks your words are trash to take a long walk off a short dock. Crappy words can be edited; a blank page cannot. Tell yourself the story as messily as you want and tell your inner editor they can return in the new year.
5. Take a day off.
Know when to let yourself take a break. If you burn yourself out trying to reach par every single day, you won’t make it to the end of the month. If you have compulsive completionist tendencies like me and can’t let a day go by with zero words, then write one sentence and take the rest of the day off, but do, please, take a day off.
6. Have fun with it.
What’s the point of NaNoWriMo if you don’t enjoy yourself? Throw something wild and wacky into the story and see where it takes you. So far in my WIP, I’ve got a stowaway kitten that ends up in the bakery and a weed-dealing teen who helps Amber break into someone’s house. I’ve been surprised by both developments. You don’t have to stick to your plan, and it doesn’t have to mirror reality. Have fun with it!
7. Mine real life.
Everything that happens can go in the story. This philosophy can help if you feel like you lack inspiration or the well of ideas is running dry. A friend’s kid told me a joke the other day that made me belly laugh. The joke is in my story now. Somebody ran a stop sign and nearly T-boned my car on my way to my parents’ place the other day. That’s in my story now. Everything that happens can be fodder for NaNoWriMo. If you feel like ideas are lacking, just look around you, think about what happened yesterday, and write it in. Use life as a prompt, and the well will never run dry.
All the best, and may the words flow as freely as the coffee out of my travel mug when it tipped over in my car last week. (I think I’ll put that in my story now.)
(I actually wanted to say, may the words flow as freely as a bowel movement after a bowl full of stewed prunes or something equally in poor taste, but I thought better of it. May the words flow as freely as Dad jokes at a pun convention, perhaps? As freely as the chilli out of Kevin’s pot? I’m sorry. I’ll stop now.)
Aly Writes 