Dear O'Abby: Can you help me win NaNo?

 Dear O'Abby,

This will be my third year attempting NaNo and I am yet to actually hit that 50K target.  I have spent the last two months preparing this time, and feel like I'm in a better place than I have been previously - I actually have an outline this time - but am still feeling a little daunted.

Are there any tips you can give me that might help me actually win this year?

Thanks so much!

NaNoNaughty

Dear NaNoNaughty,

You do realize NaNo isn't actually a competition, right?  Winning isn't everything and if your primary goal is to win, then I think you're looking at this the wrong way.  The goal is to get a book written and any words you get on the page are helping to meet that goal, even if you don't get to 50K.

As for tips, I do have a few after having done this a few times myself, so here goes... I've probably given these before, but a refresher never hurts.

Try and bank over the baseline word count in the first week while you're still fresh and excited by your story.  I always try to hit 10K within the first three or four days because it gives you a cushion later in the month when you may unexpectedly get de-railed for a day or two.

Don't stop if you get stuck on a word or a plot point or a place you're uncertain about.  Leave a note for yourself, highlight it or change the font color so you can find it again later, and move on.  You mentioned you have an outline, so if you're stuck somewhere, look over the stuff you've plotted, figure out the next place you do know what's going to happen and skip to there.  You can fill in the rest later when you've figured it out.

Don't be afraid to jump around and write random scenes if that's what's going to work for you.  You don't have to be linear at this point.  You're just getting the story down, so if there are specific scenes you're excited to write, go ahead and write them.  You can add the connecting tissue later.

Don't go back over anything you've already written.  It's too easy to get bogged down in trying to fix things and at this point you're not here to fix things.  Just keep writing.  There will be time to go back and fix things later.  The last time I did NaNo I decided to change a huge plot point I'd set up in the first three or four chapters in later ones, so I just left it, wrote myself a note, and kept going without the school play that was going to be a huge element in the story up until that point.

And despite what everyone probably tells you, you don't actually have to write every day.  I "won" NaNo the last time I did it by taking a day or two off work a week for the four weeks of NaNo and wrote most of the 50K words I got that year in those 6 days, with a little bit added in the weekends.  If writing in big chunks works for you, then maybe consider this as an option.  Or if you can't take days off, but your weekends are reasonably clear, set those aside for bulk writing and adjust your goals for the week to fit your schedule.

Hope that helps!  And good luck.  I'm rotting for you to finish.

X O'Abby