William J. Clapper

Jerry Jenkins is a legitimate writers coach, author, has a

blog, website and offers courses.

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo four times and I can speak to its benefits. I’m thinking of doing it again this year. If anyone is interested, they can contact me.

Wil

Have you heard of NaNoWriMo?

It stands for National Novel Writing Month, a creative writing challenge where participants attempt to write a 50,000-word novel during November.

And I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, I applaud encouraging you to embrace writer’s fear and start writing.

Because that fear is real.

What if you’re not good enough? What if you’ve tried to write a novel before and gotten stuck? What if you don’t have what it takes to follow through with your dream of writing a novel?

A challenge like NaNoWriMo could help set you on the path to writing the first draft.

However, and I say this as someone who has written multiple books per year for nearly half a century, 50,000 words in 30 days is a tall order.

It certainly requires discipline — a good thing, but at best it will result in a very rough first draft.

But even that isn’t all bad. Get that first draft down by any means necessary.

As long as you know that that’s when the real work begins.

NaNoWriMo is a sprint; writing a novel is amarathon.

So how do you write like the pros do?

Establish a writing routine you won’t want to break.

A regular writing habit holds you accountable and keeps you on track.

You’re not going to feel inspired every time you sit down to write

Establishing a solid, consistent routine will help you write, even when you’re not feeling motivated.

So how do you establish such a routine?

• Firmly schedule your writing time Make it a priority so that other things must work around your writing time, not vice versa. This way you’ll get into the habit of writing even when you don’t feel like it.

Schedule a realistic amount of time that you know you can devote to it more than once a week.

• Consider this writing time sacred Whether it’s two or three evenings from 8 to 10 or three mornings a week starting at 7, don’t let anything get in the way of your writing.

This means time for writing or revising only. No emails, laundry, or social media.

• Quantify your progress

Set yourself a word count goal per day and stick to it. Make sure its manageable so you don’t fall behind and become discouraged.

If you want a first draft done in six months, work out what this translates to in words per month, week, and day. Just be sure to schedule in some inevitable down time.

• Publicize it

Tell friends and loved ones you’re writing a book and the specific time you have set aside for it. This can help keep you accountable.