jimminovak:

So I’m assuming that you are talking about NaNoWriMo and I hope I’ll be able to help you. Now the #1 thing you should do is to write, obviously, but that’s not an answer you can do anything with. So I’m turning this into a bit of a general ‘things to help with nano’ post. 

At this point, four days of writing, my word count is this:

Now, I’m very much ahead, and you might want to start throwing things across the room. But I’m not in any way able to win nano more than you. If I’d stop right now and you’d continue to write, you’d win, and I wouldn’t. But I can tell what helped me, what I struggle with, some motivation, etc. I don’t know if you’re writing fanfiction or anything, so examples will be based on my story, which is a destiel fic. 

Mentality

The main, #1 thing I keep telling myself and which is very much helping me get through: 

Allow yourself to write garbage. 

Your story doesn’t have to be beautiful and perfect and good. It’s, for now, about quantity. Everything I’ve written right now is shit. I’m tryna write in a way that does not demotivate me, so I’m not just slamming words on the page. But please don’t worry about it. Here’s my first few sentences: 

Honestly, there’s a lot wrong here. It doesn’t really make sense, grammar is off-ish, it could be written more eloquent and beautiful and I should use better synonyms and that ‘yourself’ is really off and… Well. Whatever. I just let it be like that. It’s been like that since I wrote it down four days ago and I haven’t changed it. I want to, because it’s shit, but that’s what December’s for. Writing a first draft is shoveling sand into a box so that later you can build castles (thanks Shannon Hale). It isn’t perfect and shouldn’t be. 

I think realizing that what you get on paper isn’t supposed to be good or perfect in any way is the major key to me continuing to write. 

Mental Stuff You Can Do

Write what you love.

Now, this sounds like a paradox, but let me explain. I want snow and Christmas vibes and more snow and Christmas vibes, so I made sure that is a constant and important theme throughout my fic. What do you want to read? What do you want to write? Don’t worry about what others like or how many times it’s been written, if you wanna write it, write it. This is more about the contents of your story than the way it’s been written (like what I talked about above). It helps if you write things you enjoy or look forward to writing. I desperately wanted to write 14×04-based Dean in this fic even though he’s a 19 y/o hunter at the beginning… so I put in a 15-year time skip and changed the outline to have it make sense. You can make it work. 

Write for yourself, not for nano. 

Do I think this fic is gonna end up at 50k? I’m afraid it’s gonna be shorter though I’ve been told it does seem like I’ll get it to 50k. I’m bad at gauging so we’ll see. But if it doesn’t end at 50k, I’ll just write random drabbles to make up for it. Write the thing you want to write, don’t write something just to get it to 50k. Even if you never end up reaching 50k, you wrote something for you and that’s way more important than that badge. 

This post is hella important and you must read it and keep that in mind. Print it and put it on your wall or fridge or whatever. Keep this in mind. 

Practical Stuff You Can Do

Talk about your story. 

People are amazing with giving you new ideas or thoughts or point out flaws and issues in your story. Do it!!!!! Brainstorm with people!!!! It will get you going again. Promised.

Outline, or re-outline.

Doesn’t need to be long or anything. Just write down for yourself the things that have to happen/you want to happen, even if they’re small details. I only yesterday made this 5-point outline (or rather, someone else did while we were brainstorming), and I’m writing from point to point (tryna squeeze in 10k in between each.) It’s easier to have a few points to write towards, for me, at least. 

Skip ahead. 

Don’t know a scene or how to transition? Whatever. Just write the scene you know or feel super excited about. Pick those cherries, write what you feel like writing right now. Wanna write that smutty scene? Go for it. Wanna write the end? You go. It’ll get you in the writing zone. 

Do some free writing!!!

Yes, do the writing you won’t end up using. Just write whatever comes to mind even if it’s just “this is shit and blah blah im a moose”. Just take 10 minutes or however long you wish to write whatever comes to mind. You can try to keep it related to your story but it doesn’t have to be. It will, also psychologically, break that blank-page fear and get you comfortable with writing things that aren’t perfect. 

Sprint. Sprint. Sprint. Sprint.

If you write 417 words in a sprint, 4 times a day, you will reach your goal. Now, you have some words to catch up on, but it’s doable. Write for 30 minutes and write only, then stop, see how much you wrote. Try to beat yourself (or others, I’ll get onto that), see if you can write more than last time in the same amount of minutes. 

Join my super awesome discord. 

Self-promo! I have a destiel writers discord where we do a lot of sprints together and also have a nano chat where we cry and support each other. Idk if you’re a destiel writer but you should totally join if you are (don’t have to be writing destiel for nano though!)

Visuals and Audio. 

I got a pinterest board with all the inspiration for this fic as I do with most long things I write. It’s super useful but make sure you don’t end up spending hours on pinterest (it happens). I stick pictures of the things in my draft as well, like: 

Eek, another part of my horrible unedited bad first drafty writing… It’s just to get that creativity & inspiration going, and it helps. 

For audio, I listen to calming christmas/winter vibe stuff, like this, also lots of christmas instrumentals, because that’s what works for my fic. But listen to whatever music kind of works for the vibes you’re going for. Listening to this music makes me feel like I should be writing. It helps. 

This is so long Rose pls stop talking!!! 

Okay I’m done. I could give more random small tips and things that help me, but I don’t want to bother you with too much, just hmu if you need more. Good luck, you can definitely get there. 

However, if it’s affecting your mental health or yourself very negatively, don’t push yourself too much or burn yourself out. You come first.