Passion:
Number one rule = treat your story like a lover.
You have to want to spend time with her every waking hour. And when you sleep, you have to dream about her. When you’re around other people, you find yourself daydreaming--to the point you have to ask friends to repeat themselves because you completely tuned them out. You're constantly fantasizing about what you're going to do as soon as you get to see her again. Then, when the time comes, you sneak her away to a secret place... and ravage the hell out of her! Don't hold back, or else she'll get bored. The more passionate you are, the less the she can resist. Give to the muse all of yourself, and she will pay you frequent visits.
There are other boring, technical things (below). But without rule number one, none of the other stuff matters.
Use Notepads:
Bring them everywhere. There's no such thing as a perfect time to write. That's like waiting for the perfect time to have a baby. You'll never be ready.
- Write notes at work--let’s face it the first 5-10 minutes of every meeting are spent waiting for people to show up.
- Do it at lunch--little tip: your hand/a napkin can work as a notepad in emergencies.
- Take a coffee break—not only does this help your word count, but it gives you a nice mental break from the daily grind.
- Take notes in bed--lots of wonderful things precede/follow your dreams (both literally and figuratively).
Dictate:
Smart phones work best for this tactic. I personally use the Dragon Naturally Speaking dictation app on the i-phone. It allows you to word-vomit anywhere/everywhere you go. This is especially helpful in those places where taking notepads are unrealistic, dangerous, or socially unacceptable. Two examples of this are:
- Brisk morning walks—the exercise is great for your health and a good way get the creative juices flowing. Unlike a clunky notepad, phones are far more manageable. AND onlookers just assume you're talking to a friend--which I would argue is fairly accurate...
- Driving places--Let’s face it, most of corporate America drives an average of 20 minutes to work. Instead of jamming out to Miley Cyrus, take a few minutes to connect with your muse. Not only is this highly therapeutic, you can easily boost your daily count by 500 to 1,000 words.
Forget about numbers:
Lastly, don’t get caught up other people’s numbers. Someone will always be ahead of you. I passed 15k on day three this year, but there were still tons of people at 20k+. If all you focus on is word count, NaNo can get super discouraging--really fast. You’ll start to doubt yourself. Why aren’t you at 20k like your other writing buddies? Is your story not interesting enough to warrant big numbers? Why has your word count dropped by half over the last two days? If 5k was this hard, how the hell are you going to pump out 45k more?
Maybe you aren’t cut out for this writing thing after all...
Maybe you aren’t cut out for this writing thing after all...
The only thing more unattractive than a writer who doubts himself, is a writer who doubts his story. The muse needs someone who is confident and dedicated to the craft. She wants someone to believe in her; someone to take bold action; someone to seduce her. Then and only then, will she feel comfortable enough to share her secrets. So forget about the numbers and focus on the story. It will drive you to the finish line.
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Now those are my hacks--and definitely not all encompassing.
What about yours? Drop a comment below and let tell me what I've missed.
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