NaNo Advice, Part 3

This is the third Friday of NaNo, and as with the previous Fridays, I’m going to give myself some advice that you might benefit from as well.

Don’t get discouraged.

I guarantee you, there are already people out there who are finished with their 50,000 words, if not the entire novel.  As you can probably guess from my post yesterday, I am not.  Some days the writing is easy, and some days every word is a fight.  These are the moments that I just have to remind myself that I can do this.  Even having proven I can do it by finishing last year, it’s still tempting to just give up.

The “I’m never going to finish” attitude will kill your motivation during NaNo.  If you hear that little voice in your head, send one of your characters to tell it to shut up.  Let yourself write out-of-order, write a scene that comes later, even write something that’s peripheral to your story.  A detailed description of a location, a romantic moment between secondary characters, or the weird daydream of one of your main people can re-spark your creativity and may even end up staying in the novel.  Not everything that happens has to advance the plot!

In fact, I like that weird daydream idea, and I think it will fit in the spot where I’m currently stuck.  Back to the writing – stay strong!