5 Writing Tips I Learned from Winning #NaNoWriMo

Completing NaNoWriMo is among my proudest achievements as a writer. Around the world hundreds of thousands of people participate every year, yet only around 11% make it across the finish line. Reaching 50,000 words in the span of 30 days is an intense challenge. It was also pretty much exactly the number of words needed to complete my manuscript, which my agent is due to send out on submission in January. And so, out of necessity, I signed up on October 31^st and began drafting in earnest the next day.

But even starting NaNo, I wasn’t confident of finishing it. Because I’d tried NaNo before. Twice. And failed. Dismally. The first time I hadn’t planned nearly enough in advance, and was still way too focussed on writing Serious Literature rather than stories I was passionate about telling. The second time – only last year – I burned out and quit in the space of a week.

This time round, I loved NaNoWriMo. It was like creative rocket fuel propelling me towards a complete first draft. All the anxieties that usually plague me melted away as I lost myself in the joy of writing the kind of lesbian romance I have always longed to read. I had a vision of where I wanted my characters to go and, through sitting down at my computer to write every day, I got them there. And I wrote 50,000 words in 22 days.

So, here are the hard-won tips I picked up through the process. The realisations which – for me – were the difference between success and failure. I hope they help you along your own writing journey.

1. Stop Obsessing About Numbers

That might sound counterintuitive considering NaNo’s one aim is writing 50,000 words over November. But hear me out. When you’re thinking about the word count, you’re stressing. Am I there yet? How far do I have to go? Can I make it today? And those anxieties can so easily become the loudest thing in your head. But, my fellow WriMos, there’s only one thing you need to be thinking about: your story.

It’s so much easier to find your flow when story is your central focus. Your characters, your setting, your plot. And – most importantly – how to move your scene from Point A to Point B. Concentrating on the micro rather than the micro: this is how you immerse yourself in the world you have created.

NaNoWriMo has some great features to help with this. They have a timer so that you can do writing sprints if your creativity comes in bursts. You can Pomodoro to your heart’s content. Or Flowtime, Timebox – whatever floats your boat. And if like me you’re more into marathons than sprints, there’s a stopwatch – press start at the beginning of your session, and stop at the end.

Once you get into the rhythm of writing, the timer can become a friend. After the first week, every time I hit that button it was like flipping a switch in my brain. I’d go from thinking about the work emails I needed to answer or the biscuits I wanted to put on our Tesco order to being fully inside this story. And the less I thought about racking up my minimum daily word count, the faster I’d reach it.

2. Game the System

The NaNoWriMo daily word goal resets at midnight. At 12.01 I created a new save specific to that day and put on my writing playlist. At 12.02 I started typing. And without exception these were my most productive sessions – on several days I comfortably exceeded the minimum daily word goal during my midnight session alone. On multiple days I wrote 2,000 words before going to sleep. And every morning I’d wake up on a high, knowing the hardest part was already done. Which made meeting and surpassing the daily minimum word goal a joyful experience. I averaged 2,319 words per day, and it felt great.

I appreciate that starting to write at midnight might sounds insane to plenty of people. If you work a full-time day job, it’s simply not possible. And if you have young kids to care for, it’d probably lead to extreme sleep deprivation. But I’m self-employed with no dependents, and have the good fortune of being able to set my own hours and listen to my body’s natural rhythms.

I’m a night owl – it’s always been a creative time for me. When I’d stay up to read past my bedtime as a kid (and a woman in my thirties, if we’re being totally honest); when I’d write my illicit fanfiction as a teenager. The fact that my family, friends, and colleagues are mostly asleep means there are no distractions: all the expectations placed upon me are lying dormant, and I’m free to channel everything into writing. Find a routine that works for you. Which leads to my next point…

3. STOP COMPARING YOUR PROCESS!

Let go of any preconceived notions of how you ‘should’ write, stop comparing your process to how other people get their words out, and lean into what fuels your writing. It’s hard to build the confidence it takes to sustain writing an entire novel while measuring yourself against other people.

On the first day of NaNo I opened TikTok, eager to pick up tips and motivation from other WriMos. And I was instantly filled with regret. A very enthusiastic indie author shared her plan to write 10,000 words per day. For the first five days of NaNo. So that she could complete the month-long challenge in under a week.

Every day I’d open the clock app, and every day Rebecca Thorne would have racked up an astronomical word count. On day 4 she posted a video about how frustrated she was to have only made it to 7,500 words, which to Thorne felt like “failure.” I’d just squeaked 1,700 that day, which seemed like peanuts by comparison. I was utterly demoralised. I asked ‘Why can’t I write the way she does?’ The next day I felt so glum and unmotivated that I just went to bed instead of doing my midnight session. I wrote 773 words total and fell behind.

At that point I could so easily have failed NaNo. It was tempting to give in to self-doubt and quit. But then I realised: there’s nothing wrong with the amount I’d been writing. Every day was progress – a significant step towards completing not only this challenge, but my manuscript as a whole. I read everything I’d written back, and I was proud of my story. But in comparing myself to someone else – someone with a different process, different strengths, different rhythms – I’d opened the door to doubt.

It’s true that I couldn’t write the book Rebecca Thorne was drafting. Whether she’s leaning into cosy fantasy or horror, I’m in awe of her imagination and originality. And have pre-ordered her forthcoming novel. But it’s equally true that Rebecca Thorne couldn’t write the same Opposites Attract x Age Gap romance I did. Even if we started with the same concept and tropes, we’d end up producing vastly different stories.

That’s the beauty of writing: no two authors create identical work, even with an identical challenge. So, judging yourself for having a different pace or goal to other writers is a giant waste of energy. Energy that could be better spent working on that draft!

4. Listen to Your Body

With a challenge like NaNo it can be very easy to develop tunnel vision. For it to feel like achieving that 50k on time is the only thing that matters, and your worth as a writer – even a human being – is determined by whether you succeed or fail. When this happens, you can feel guilty for spending time away from drafting.

But NaNo isn’t the only thing that matters. Far from it. Your mental and physical wellbeing take priority. So keep doing the things that nourish and sustain you. Take walk, go for a swim, or whatever your preferred form of exercise is. Step away from your computer. Move your body. Be fully present in it. And have fun. Do things that give your brain precious dopamine.

Andrew Ryan, Rapture’s founder

At the start of NaNo I decided to stop gaming for the duration of November, or until I completed my draft – whichever came first. This was a big mistake. Possibly my biggest. Gaming is pretty much the only thing that completely blocks out my anxiety. By the third day I was tired, twitchy, and on my way to burning out.

But then I started replaying the BioShock trilogy – dystopian survival horror is a world apart from the contemporary romance I was writing, so every time I descended into Rapture (the underwater city where games 1 & 2 take place) it felt like a proper break. My brain found a reliable source of sweet, sweet energy pennies. In scheduling time to rest and have fun, I was enabling myself to succeed. Having the opportunity to unwind made me all the more excited about getting back into drafting.

5. Back That Shit Up

Last, but by no means least: save your document often. Multiple versions of the same file. Mine go like this: Novel Title, Draft X, Day Y. And back those files up. I’m not fucking around here. Email them to yourself, drag them onto DropBox or Google Drive, load them on a USB drive. Ideally all three. Whatever you do, don’t lose your work. Don’t waste the time, effort, and skill you put into this draft. Doing NaNo is an intense experience. At times it can feel like an impossible slog. So, make sure you’re protecting those precious words.

I know that when you get to the end of a writing session it can be tempting to close your laptop with vague thoughts of I’ll do it later. You’re craving dinner, TikTok, the comfort of a hot bath. But take the two extra minutes to back up your work, or you risk losing countless hours’ worth of writing.

I once went to a craft workshop with Sara Sheridan, where she gave a piece of advice I’ll never forget. Ask yourself: if the only copy of my manuscript were at the peak of Ben Nevis, would I climb up there and get it? And with my NaNo 2023 project, the answer is yes. I am so fucking proud of this story, these characters – more than that, I’ve written aspects of lesbian experience that I’ve often craved yet rarely found in other books. But if I hadn’t backed up my document and my laptop was stolen, or I’d got the black screen of death, that shit would be gone. I could perform all twelve of Hercules’ labours and it would still be lost to me forever.

Plus, backing up your work serves another purpose. It’s helpful during the revision stage. If at any point you’ve make changes you’re unhappy with, all you need to do is go back to a previous day’s work to find the right version.

Also, in the unfortunate event that someone tries to plagiarise your work, having multiple timestamped versions of the manuscript to document your progress over an extended period proves beyond shadow of doubt that this story belongs to you. Maybe that sounds paranoid, but I just finished the gut-wrenching masterpiece that is R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface. And the plot would have been utterly impossible if Athena had backed her files up digitally. Just saying.