Your Yearly NaNoWriMo Round-Up

Photo credit: sushimustwrite on Flickr

It's that time of year again! NaNoWriMo is less than two weeks away, so if you think you might want to participate but haven't yet made plans, there's no time like the present. So today I'm sharing my tweaked yearly re-post of NaNoWriMo goodies that you might find helpful. 

For those who haven’t decided on whether or not they want to NaNo, I have a post for you. And if you don’t click, but you’re on the fence, I’ll say that I’ve participated three times and totally loved it. Granted, I'm a fast-drafter, and NaNoWriMo really works best for those open to fast-drafting (which is not everyone, and that's okay!), but it’s been super super effective for me in the past.

As I said last year, I’ve written four manuscripts (or a good chunk of it at least) in NaNo-like settings (three November NaNoWriMos and one Camp NaNo). While the community, and excitement, and pretty graphs all are always very tempting me to join, I'll be sitting this one out as I am really behind on writer and author stuff right now and will need all of November to catch up. So fingers crossed that happens.

Because it’s October and NaNoPrepMo, you will very possibly find this post on Pre-NaNoWriMo Tips helpful! Because prepping for NaNo, I’ve found, makes the NaNoing experience much easier. And less stressful. To a point.

To contrast two very different NaNo experiences, the first time I NaNoed, I made NaNoWriMo super difficult for myself by abandoning my first NaNo project on day fourteen and scrapping 24,000 words to start something new. (Yes, really.) Then two years ago I went a little type-crazy and finished in nine days. Still not totally sure how that happened, and I haven't repeated that level of productivity since, but it was definitely an experience.

I’ve also shared ten foolproof secrets to winning NaNoWriMo (which are actually not the least bit foolproof and please don’t do those things, thanks).

Two years ago I didn’t NaNo, but I did record a six-vlog, week-by-week vlog series (including before and after) specifically for surviving NaNoWriMo. You might find it helpful to watch them ahead of time.

And finally, here's a compilation of helpful NaNoWriMo links that I shared on the first day of NaNoWriMo three years ago but I’ll give to you early, for funsies, and also because hopefully you'll find them helpful.

If you have any helpful links for future NaNo-ers, share them below! And also, will you be participating in NaNoWriMo this year?

Twitter-sized bite:

Thinking about participating in #NaNoWriMo this year? @Ava_Jae rounded up helpful tip posts. (Click to tweet)