Are You Ready...

To write a book in a month? Fifty Thousand words here I come. Given a win this Nov. my steampunk/fantasy wip, Skyborn, with be over 100k for the first draft. I expect that will be heavily trimmed down during revisions as sentence structure gets tightened up, but edits will tell when the time comes. I won my first NaNoWriMo by writing almost entirely on my phone, here, there, and everywhere, when I had time. Which, unless you are one of the speed demons out there, 50k in a month a takes significant time investment. (There are some who spill their counts out in the first day or week. Ouch and how?) But I tend to be the plod along to the standard daily count of 1667 until the last few days when I hit my deadline pressure point a dump out a couple 5k days and call it won a day or two early; though the story is often not complete yet. This year, I am going to try adding dictation to my routine and see how it goes. I also have a specific writing channel on pandora that I listen too when I'm writing. It's kind of pirate metal, weird but has a beat, and I absolutely only listen to it if am I writing. Video game music is a great soundtrack option too-If you are like me and can't stand silence anyway. I always have something going given the choice. 

So for those of you who are braving the challenge, welcome! I won't say it's easy, but it is doable! Prepare your snacks. Stretch your fingers. Here are some link you might find helpful, we all have our own systems of churning out the words.

The official site! www.nanowrimo.org You'll find partners, sprint, gauntlets, and all sorts of word games to bring the challenge along. 

Writing Game fun! Get your word count and progress in the story game here.
https://4thewords.com/home It is a paying game, but past Nanowrimos have been open and free for the month and if you win the official nano, there's been discount codes for the site. 

Free and simple, if unfinished, is Fighter's Block, it's timer system keeps the fingers moving.  http://cerey.github.io/fighters-block

For writing progress breakdown beside the official site, try Pacemaker
https://www.pacemaker.press/

There's a NaNoWriMo facebook group, which usually has sprints running all month
Same for Twitter. Probably tumblr too, though I've not run into it. 
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Track all of your new characters and their imporant details with my Writing Workbook series!
https://www.chknyght.com/writing-workbooks.html


You can find some fun prompts here: https://www.chknyght.com/fav-writing-tools.html
Whatever you do, don't stop, don't edit. don't fall into the research pit. It can all be made pretty and sensical after the fact, in like February. Just make notes as you go. I like to insert them like ((this in parenthesis)) so I can find them later with the search function. 

It is an international month of writing madness! If you join the challenge, good luck! 
If you're not writing, cheer us on! If you know one of us in person, check up, make sure we are eating, and aren't beating our head on our keyboards, or totally lost in the worlds we are creating. It happens. ;P