Conquering NaNoWriMo with Megan Haskell and Greta Boris

Are you ready to WIN NaNoWriMo but worried about the overwhelming challenges to writing 50,000 words in the month of November?

Fear not! Starting this week, The Author Wheel will be sharing our best tried-and-true novel writing and productivity strategies in weekly "betweeniesodes" of the podcast.

First up, prepping for the challenge begins with setting the right atmosphere at home. We'll guide you on communicating your goals to your loved ones, carving out dedicated writing time, and even preparing your mind and body for daily writing. Also, we'll shed light on the importance of starting a daily writing habit beforehand to minimize the shock to your system come November. So, buckle up and get ready to transform your writing journey with our practical tips and tricks!

Want even more writing productivity help?

From now through Halloween, we're offering podcast listeners and subscribers 50% off our online course, Finish Your Novel Faster. Just go to https://www.authorwheel.com/finish-your-novel-faster and use code NANOWRIMONOVEL at checkout.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

Hi everyone and welcome to the very first Author Wheel Betweeny Sode, where we're going to be sharing our best quick tips for Nano-Rymo. I'm Megan Haskell, award-winning fantasy adventure author.

Speaker 2: 0:51

And I'm Greta Boris, usa Today Bestselling Mystery Thriller Author. Together we are the Author Wheel.

Speaker 1: 0:59

So this episode is pretty special because it's going to be quick. We're not making this one long. But before we even start our little Nano-Rymo tips, we want you to know about a limited time deal that we're offering just for Nano-Rymo, for our course Finish your Novel Faster. I think it's pretty clear what the course is about. It's about finishing your novel faster. So I think it's perfect for Nano. But from now until Halloween, you'll get 50% off the full price of the course using the code Nano-Rymo, which is N-A-N-O-W-R-I-M-O, and the link is in the show notes with the coupon code embedded in it. But in that course, basically, we're going to help you find time to write, we're going to help you build that writing habit and then you can have fun and gamify it so that you actually get those dopamine hits that keep you wanting to get back into your chair every single day, which is kind of important if you're trying to write 50,000 words in a month.

Speaker 2: 2:04

Absolutely, and there's also some things in that course about optimizing your writing sessions that you know, like tips and tricks to help you really get more words on the page more quickly, which is what you are trying to do in November.

Speaker 2: 2:20

So dig in and take a look at that. But now we are ready for our first tip. I feel like we should have music or a drum roll. Tip number one yes, that was kind of like a drum roll, it was a giggle roll. Okay, get your household ready. So you know it's time consuming. Nano-rymo is time consuming, and even if you're not exactly doing Nano-Rymo and you've just decided November is going to be a really productive month, these tips will still work for you. So let your friends and family know what you're doing. Tell people, because People will interrupt you. People will try to make you, get you to make plans with them. People will try to get you to cook their turkey for them. People will try to do all kinds of things. You've got to let everybody know that you have this huge plan and get as many people on board to support you as possible.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Communication is really, really key. If they don't know what you're doing and why, and the fact that you're trying to meet this goal, then they can't help you protect that time, they can't help you achieve it and they'll get in your way without even realizing it. And it's not malicious, necessarily. It's not that they're trying to slow you down. It's just that if you don't say, hey, this is important to me, I need to be writing every single day. I need to get this many words written, can you help me? Then they're more likely to help you.

Speaker 2: 3:53

Exactly and not get cranky at you, because if you don't tell them and then you got your nose in your computer all this extra time, you will find that friends and family can get cranky. That's happening to me.

Speaker 2: 4:06

Okay. So then the next part of this getting your household ready is also put your writing schedule on the calendar for yourself so that you can say, find the time and say, okay, I'm going to write from 8 in the morning until noon, or I'm going to write from whatever that block of time is, because then that's an even more specific way to communicate it, especially the people you live with Don't come bugging me between 8 noon unless you're bleeding out of your eyeballs. Something really sweet and thoughtful like that you can say. And then one more thing we do have a friend who's done this. Some people cook ahead of time and make food and freeze a single portions of food, plan their meals to make eating really, really simple so that you're not spending a lot of time on that.

Speaker 2: 5:00

So that is the get your household ready tip Yep.

Speaker 1: 5:05

And then the tip number two, which really tip number one was kind of three tips, but that's okay, we're not mathematicians, but yeah. So tip number two is to start building a daily writing habit and this kind of goes along with putting your writing schedule on the calendar. But even in October it helps to start preparing your body and your mind, stamina, wise, to be writing every day, or close to it, whatever your schedule is going to allow you to do, and maintaining that schedule. So you're basically setting yourself up with that habit so that your body, your physical body, knows that, hey, if you're going to start getting up at you know six o'clock in the morning to write before you go to work in the morning, then maybe you won't be so tired. If you start building that habit two weeks in advance, right, it's like getting ready to go back to school with your kids, anybody?

Speaker 1: 6:04

has kids right, you would spend all summer getting your sleep habits totally out of whack. You have to take a couple of weeks right before school starts to kind of get into that new schedule. So do that now too, and even if you're not actively writing your first draft, you can be working on other things that will help you prepare. So whether that's your outline or your story Bible or just journaling or whatever, it doesn't matter. Just get yourself set and into that mindset of writing every day so that when November 1st comes around, you're ready to take off in a sprint.

Speaker 2: 6:43

Good advice, Megan. Okay, that wraps up our first between ESOD for today. And next We'll be talking about how to get your story organized before you start