Start writing immediately when November begins. Midnight (in your time zone) on November 1 is the official start of NaNoWriMo. You should have your notes handy, and just start writing based on what you have plotted out. Refer to them often, because you may forget a key component later, which means you have to think some more. Keep a list of your characters as you name them. You may be surprised at how quickly you will forget who was who. A simple page or text document will help you keep them in order. Don’t go back and reread your previous day’s writing each day; you will be tempted to fiddle with it. Read back only enough to get your place in the story and continue. Notes will help you keep your place without too much back reading. Do not delete words. The backspace key will only reduce your word count; do not let it! If your novel is utter junk, well, you are not alone. Someday you will look back at the hilarious typos and the Freudian slips and laugh. (Also, there is a thread in which to post such amusing disasters. ) Try to overdo it the first week. Try to get 20,000 words by the seventh day. No doubt, it will be nearly impossible to do it, but even if you do not make 20,000, you will be a good bit ahead in case you miss a day of writing. Try to hit 35,000 by the next week, 45k the following week, and 50k in the next few days. See the pattern? You have a smaller and smaller goal every week. This is to accommodate for writer’s block, which you may get from time to time. However, don’t overwhelm yourself so much that you experience burnout. This is optional, but it does help you stay positive and encourages you to keep going. Keep track of your word count. You can update your word count at any time through your user profile. The website keeps a graph of these updates. Read How to Freewrite and do it.
To verify your word count, you will upload your entire manuscript or paste it into the website once at the end of the month. The NaNoWriMo website does not save or publish your manuscript, but if you are concerned about anybody reading your story, there is a tool available that will jumble the manuscript so it will become unreadable without altering the word count. Verify your word count early if you can. The website gets a great deal of traffic during the first and last couple of days of November. Verification is available starting on the 25th of the month. If you have reached the 50,000-word goal, you will receive a downloadable certificate, your name will appear on the list of winners, and in December, you’ll be able to collect your prizes.
To verify your word count, you will upload your entire manuscript or paste it into the website once at the end of the month. The NaNoWriMo website does not save or publish your manuscript, but if you are concerned about anybody reading your story, there is a tool available that will jumble the manuscript so it will become unreadable without altering the word count. Verify your word count early if you can. The website gets a great deal of traffic during the first and last couple of days of November. Verification is available starting on the 25th of the month. If you have reached the 50,000-word goal, you will receive a downloadable certificate, your name will appear on the list of winners, and in December, you’ll be able to collect your prizes.
A few NaNo authors do publish their books in print with book publishers, but most manuscripts require extensive revision to achieve that quality. It is easy to publish a manuscript online. Be sure to mark it with your copyright or a free license of your choice. The other option is to self publish, which many people do, or you may also go through a traditional publishing house.
