I've decided to keep a round up of NaNoWriMo advice on my blog, as much for myself as anyone who happens to find them. These links will be gathered from Twitter, where there is a lot of traffic on the #NaNoWriMo hashtag. If you haven't got time to read it all, come on by here! I'll collate the ones I think are most useful.
General Advice
Tips for Keeping Your Sanity During NaNoWriMo by Jodie Cleghorn :: One of the few bloggers I've seen brave enough to mention the dreaded 'D' word: Delete. Don't be afraid to delete your words. You can still count the words toward your total, and sometimes deleting a mass of uncooperative words can lead to a deluge of more agreeable ones.
Advice for new WriMos by TallulahLucy :: There are ten awesome tips for making it through NaNoWriMo here. I am a particularly big fan of having your planning and research done and ready. It might be a bit late for that if you haven't already, but the rest of the advice here is spot on. Avoid Criticism. Seriously, 50,000 words written in a month are not meant for critical eyes.
Nano For n00bs by Simon Haynes :: Probably the best advice I've heard in terms of making sure you hit your word targets. Are you busy? Time poor? This post will show you how you can make 1,667 words a day seem like a piece of cake. Again, note the emphasis on planning. As I've said here before, it's really, really useful.
Writing Tools
Don't like using word? Don't panic. You don't have to.
Nor do you have to spend a bunch of money on programs and apps to help you write. If you are of a mind to part with your hard earned cash, there's a list of great programs that can help you churn out thousands of words on this blog post by Steven Sande.
I would recommend against it. I'm a bit old fashioned this way. To me, buying programs like these is like sitting down to the infomercials late at night and thinking the AbFlexor is going to be your ticket to instant weight loss. I don't see how, if you're struggling to get the words out in a basic writing program, you'll fare any better in, say, Scrivener. It is up to you, however, and the list posted over at that blog is comprehensive.
However, if you'd like some excellent freeware...
The aforementioned Simon Haynes has a nifty little program that you can download FOR FREE called yWriter. If you don't necessarily like writing in chronological order and have a little time to dedicate to the learning curve, this is a nifty piece of software. I personally don't use it but I am a big fan of the potential for its applications. Did I mention it's free?
If you're writing scripts, there's only one program that you should be using if you don't have a thousand dollars to spare on 'professional software'. Celtx will produce a fully formatted script for a play, movie, tv show, radio drama, you name it. I love this program. I don't write scripts often, but when I do, I use this bar nothing.
Inspiration
I think the only thing I can post for inspiration before NaNo even starts is this blog post from last year. It's on The Creative Pen, and again is a list-based post. I think the sentence that sums it up best is this one:
NaNoWriMo 2009 changed my life.
Even if it's only in a small way, it might change yours aswell.
This will be my first NaNoWriMo, but not my first book. I can't wait to see what unique challenges are in store!
I will post a link round up like this once every few days to keep pace with where NaNoWriMo is at, and what new blog posts and inspirations pieces come to the fore. Until then, go forth, writers! Pick up pen. Put on your blinkers.
We've got writing to do.
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