My NaNoWriMo Survival Guide (Tips, Tricks, Netflix, & Resources!)

Hello all my fellow readers! Today, I thought that since November is right around the corner, some of you guys out there might be preparing for a little something called NaNoWriMo. I've been lucky enough to have participated in the past three NaNoWriMo sessions since 2014 and even decided to join in on Camp NaNo this summer, both sessions in April and July, and I had SO MUCH fun and plan on doing Camp NaNo again next summer! Anyhoo, even though NaNoWriMo is a ton of fun for writers wanting to get those stories in their head onto paper. it can be a little bit stressful for newbies and 'experienced' NaNoWriMo participants. I should know, I feel like I'm LOSING MY MIND just preparing for November.

Whether you're a pantser like me or a plotter, we all really want to write the stories that we feel need to be written down even if we keep them only for ourselves or hope to go through the publishing process. Whatever your goals, it's always nice to prepare yourself for a long month of writing and try something new to keep the creativity flowing throughout the month. 

I myself will be trying out a more outlined approach to my writing but I'll also be winging it half the time. I think by outlining the basics, I'll be able to keep my story in check while also having some freedom to be creative while hitting on the points I want to cover in my story. Because of this new approach, I've been doing quite a lot of research when it comes to how to outline effectively and found quite a number of tips, tricks, and resources that I would love to share with you all that I think might help whenever you get into a bit of a writing rut. So, if you're ready to tackle all of the writing things this coming November, venture onto the tips like the WRITING WARRIOR you are! 

(I've had a lot of coffee this morning. I apologize.)

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PLAN ALL THE THINGS

I think one of the most important things to do in November or in preparation for the writing month, is to PLAN. Whether you're making notes in your planners, agendas, calendars or only planning out time for your writing every day,  it's so important to at least have a plan set in place so that it grounds you and keeps you from procrastinating because we're all guilty of putting things off for any reason at all. My excuse is Netflix. 

Down below I've added in some videos that will help you to plan out your novel, your time, or just your life in general. Whether you have a busy month ahead of you because of school, work, or other hobbies you want to continue to do, hopefully these videos will be able to help you manage your time in order to get all your work done! 

WRITING WITH A BUSY SCHEDULE

HOW TO GET MORE DONE IN LESS TIME

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OUTLINE YOUR NOVEL

Whether you already are a huge fan of outlining your novel before you write anything at all or you're new to the whole novel outlining thing like me, these videos are for you to help you figure out how to outline more effectively while still giving you some room to be creative and wing it sometimes while you're planning. Because who says that you HAVE to stick to your outline? As long as your staying on track with how you want your story to play out, then you're golden!

Like I said, I will be doing some outlining for my novel while not getting too detailed to ease my way into it but there are so many ways to outline for you to play around with so try out all the options no matter how weird or untraditional they may be!

THE STORYBOARD: MOST COMMON METHOD

11 MORE WAYS TO OUTLINE

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WHEN YOU START 'HATING YOUR NOVEL'!

Probably one of the most common problems among writers is that dreaded moment that will sometimes pop up when you're writing your story that you were once SO EXCITED to write and you had a plan, you loved your characters, you were really feeling everything and then one day you sit down to write . . . and you realize you hate your novel. This has happened to me SO MANY TIMES and I am here to tell you that it is completely normal for you to feel that way. What's the solution to overcoming your hate for your own novel? Should you give up and start a new story? Should you just push through and hope for the best? What if your heart just isn't in the story anymore? Ask yourself this one question: Is it the story I hate or the writing process?

There are other simple solutions to look through if you still really want to write your story but just don't know why you find it hard to continue writing. Maybe the reason why you hate your novel is simply because you've lost sight of why you wanted to write it in the first place. I've found that most of the time when I just can't stand how my novel is going is because 1) the storyline I chose just doesn't interest me, 2)  I don't have a good enough idea on who the characters are or what their goals are, and 3) I'm not entirely in love with it yet. How do you fix these issues? 

One word: RESEARCH! Take a step back from your novel and look to see where your problem areas are. Are there one or multiple characters you're having problems with when it comes to developing them? Are you having issues with writing certain scenes such as action or romantic scenes for example? Are you simply just not interested in the path you're taking with your story and need to consider going in a different direction? 

To help you to start researching why you're just not liking your novel, here are a couple of sites to help you diagnose the problem and hopefully help you to fall back in love with your story by fleshing it out and nailing down the details. One site is Better Novel Project which takes examples from your favorite books like The Hunger Games and Percy Jackson to give examples on how to write certain scenes, develop characters, figure out their goals and who they are as well as how to use them effectively to write your own novel. I really love all the resources this site has and I think it's one you should refer to quite often if you ever get stuck.

Another site that I really love is She's Novel which really dives into the process of writing great characters, a nice pace, giving tips on what to do if you feel your story is dragging, how to write relatable characters, create a believable villain, work out an awesome climax, plot-twists, and so much more! Not only does it offer a ton of amazing blog posts on all things writing, it also has a great selection of other resources to continue to grow as a writer and find even more help should you run into any more writing issues. Another site you might want to bookmark!

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WRITING FUEL!

Now that we have a good idea of the outlining process and the right resources to help us figure out our novel and our characters, you're going to need your fuel to keep you going during those writing sessions you'll be tackling. We all have different drinks and foods we like turning to but there are a few snacks that are actually proven by scientists (SCIENCE PEOPLE!) to help improve your creative thought process. 

One of the most common go-to drinks that I myself am addicted to is coffee. Coffee is known for reducing fatigue, enhance perception, and also boost your metabolism to give you energy. But it also prevents your focus from becoming too diffuse, honing your attention and creativity onto one task and preventing your creative mind from jumping around from one subject to another. 

Another common drink is that of tea. I'm not a huge tea drinker but occasionally I will make myself a cup. Green tea, as well as a few other types of tea, are also really great for the writing process. Tea is a great substitute for snacking which could be handy when you need to hunker down and get that writing done without any distractions. 

Caffeine is known to prohibit a healthy night of sleep and even though caffeine is found in tea, Passionflower tea and Lavender are great choices for getting a more restful night of sleep and to fall asleep faster since it relaxes your body. Your body will naturally fall into a state of preparing for sleep which you need to help and not interfere with. A restful night of sleep helps the creative thinking process, problem-solving, and motor skills once you wake up and get to writing. 

My personal favorite option for a great writing snack is chocolate. I might be just a tad bit of a chocolate addict but I swear this is a really great option! Dark chocolate is the best type of chocolate to go with since the anti-oxidants help your blood flow to the brain more smoothly which improves your concentration.

Nuts are also an amazing way to keep creative as well. Almonds, Brazilian nuts, and walnuts contain high amounts of Vitamin E which prevents poor memory and also helps the concentration process. Eaten together with the chocolate boosts your energy and is full of that much needed protein while also being a great mood booster!

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GET CREATIVE

There are plenty of other tips and tricks out there to help you with keeping creative and continuing to write your novel. A few methods are to keep a notebook with you at all times in case you think of an idea, piece of dialog that you think is so amazing, or think of character traits, names, or themes and need to write them down.

You can also use Netflix as a means of help. Yes, you read that right, YOU CAN WATCH NETFLIX. But, only do so in a practical way. I find that watching movies or TV shows that fall into the same categories as my novel really help me get into the mood for writing my story and also helps to give me ideas on what I want to happen in my novel. It could be based off a character in a movie, something the character said, a place they visit, even the title or plot of the movie that gives me one simple idea to add into my own novel. Now, don't go and copy every single little thing from those TV shows and movies! Simply use them as inspiration to help you gain ideas for your novel. Use different elements from the things you watch like themes, hobbies, the pacing, the culture, and anything else depending on your novel.

It also might be a great option to compile a list of writing prompts either by looking online to see what you can find or by creating a board on Pinterest for all your writing prompts whether it relates to plot, dialogue, theme, opening up your novel, or helping to come up with another event to play out in your story. You can print them out and stick them in a notebook, hang them up on a cork-board or stick them on your wall, or create a collage on your computer or device to have your prompts all in one place.

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One last thing before I get going to continue outlining, I'll leave you all with a little tune to help you keep up the writing in November should you get discouraged!

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So I hope you enjoyed this post about my resources for all your NaNoWriMo needs! If you have any other tips and tricks for writing, please leave them in the comments! Read on, bookworms! See you in the next chapter!

I WROTE A BOOK!!

So . . . yeah, I wrote a book. As if the title of this post didn't tell you enough. Allow me to further get into the details about all of this excitingness! I can't stop thinking about how impossible it is that I actually have a book of my own creation that I now own two physical copies of that people can actually BUY! Like, what?! I'ts been a dream of mine since I was a young girl to be an author one day and I guess I technically am now. Yay for indie authors! I'm not entirely sure what to do now other than continuing to write new stories that are bouncing around in my head and tackling more books on my TBR but for now, let's just move on to the next part of this post.

LOOK IT ------------------------------------------------>

So, back in November there was this little thing called NaNoWriMo where people all over the world took to their laptops and pens to write an entire novel (50,000+ words) in thirty days. Now while that may seem like a lot (IT IS) it's actually not that bad once you get into the groove of writing every single day which teaches discipline to those writers out there who don't make a habit of writing crazy word counts every day (I write like three words a day). I've won twice and both times I was literally winging it with no concrete story-line so if I can make it out alive two years in a row then you have a pretty darn good chance of winning!

Anyhoo, after November, I took to editing my story which I have to say is a lot more fun than actually writing a story from scratch because, you know, it's already there for you. The only thing you have to do is read over everything and make a few changes to "sharpen up the edges" if you will. It took about two months before I had a semi-final draft that I was ready to print, part of that is because I've been binge watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S on Netflix and I'm very self-critical towards anything I create . . . Anyway, within a couple of weeks I had a physical copy of my book as well as a link to share with people so they can purchase it. Yay for blood, sweat, tears and whole lot of coffee.

So let me tell you what this book is about! This book is a story that consists of three of my all-time favorite things: Photography, coffee, and Frank Sinatra. There you go. Doesn't it sound like a bestseller?

Just kidding! But seriously, I love all of those things so much that I decided to write a story based around them. In the books I read, I find that there aren't a lot of weird or peculiar characters. By that I mean it's hard to find unique characters such as Lola from Lola and the Boy Next Door or even The Baudelaire Orphans from A Series Of Unfortunate Events. 

I LOVE unique characters like that because it's just so cool to see them go about their everyday lives, acting like their personalities are completely normal to everyone around them. I wanted to add some of that into my book as well so . . . I did! (the synopsis is down below).

SYNOPSIS: 

Evie Montez is a young photographer with an eye for the world around her. But with her sister Nora's wedding only a few weeks away with lots of planning still left to do and many other things to deal with like school and work, things start to take unexpected turns. Throw in a really cute guy who looks like he just stepped out of the 1920's and things can't get any more strange. Evie is used to keeping her feelings hidden but as she goes through twists and turns and many ups and downs, she realizes that some of the best moments are those that leave you more confused than ever.

Even though she's helping Nora plan for the future, Evie can't seem to shake things from her past that continue to haunt her. She's forced to come face to face with her secrets and pain when she starts to discover that second chances don't always come in normal packages. Like a photograph, the past never fades. But like the future, there's always something new.

So that's pretty much all there is to it! Really long post but whatever. Click the linkedy link below if you want to check out my book!

Purchase "Dressed To The Nines"

And if you want to read some of what I've written in the past for FREE, click this link:

Wattpad!

So I hope you all enjoyed this post! Read on bookworms! See you guys in the next chapter!

NaNoWriMo Update #1

Hello potential NaNo buds! That time of the year has finally come! No, not Halloween or Christmas. I'm talking about the magical month of NaNoWriMo! In case you don't know what that is, it stands for National Novel Writing Month and it's pretty awesome. Basically it's a challenge to give you that extra push in order to start writing that novel of yours every day for an entire month with a goal of 50,000 words or more or less. Numbers don't count! As long as you're writing, you've already won. I've been a participant twice now (this being my second time) and I seriously love doing it. So without making this intro too long, here's my first update for day one of NaNoWriMo!

Add Me As A Writing Buddy! Let's Cheer Each Other On!

So this month, I actually had no idea what I even wanted to write. I had a few ideas but none of them were really concrete decisions. I'm still trying to wrap up another story I'm currently writing so I wasn't really sure if I'd even have time for NaNo this month. Then, one night I was wide awake and tossing and turning when an idea hit me and in the morning, I was already designing a cover art for my new story. I meditated on my story idea and when the day finally came on Halloween, the day before the beauteous start of NaNoWriMo, I decided that I would take my idea and turn it into something real. So even if you're just finding out about this, or you're still not sure what you want to write, it's never too late to join. Whether you start today or next week, as long as you're writing what you want, then that's good enough for everybody.

Seriously though, if you didn't know about NaNo, just click the link above to get more info on it and sign up to start writing your novel. It's so much fun and I promise you'll love it. Well, you'll be satisfied once the month wraps up.

Now I'm not saying it's all sunshine and roses. My first year doing NaNo was fun at first but then I started getting a little stressed out. I started falling behind a little on my word count and a few times I had no idea how to continue my story. I'm the type of writer that goes in without a solid layout of whatever story I'm writing. I'll have a few things mapped out in my head and what I want the story to end up being but overall, I'm pretty much winging it in between. I envy those who pretty much have a script for their stories. TELL ME YOUR SECRETS!! 

Even though it's only my second time doing NaNo, I've learned quite a lot from my first time. I learned how to discipline myself when it comes to writing regularly. Whether I write ten thousand words one day or a hundred, they get me that much closer to completing my story. Now if I'm being truthful, I pretty much banged my head on the wall whenever I didn't write anything one day. I felt like a complete failure and like I just failed my entire family and cried all day. But that's just me. I learned that as long as I write SOMETHING, then it still counts.

Another thing I learned is that I need quite a lot of coffee and music to keep me going and a little time away from the computer also helps get the juices flowing. If you're having trouble figuring out where to go from the first sentence, pop on your favorite CD or get a cup of joe or tea or Kool-Aid to freshen yourself up. Maybe even grab your favorite snack or take a walk to the store to get those things. I get inspired by the things around me. I get inspired by movies, t.v, music, the weather, other books or even dirt. Yes, that last one happened once. Anyway, the point is: there's inspiration EVERYWHERE! Just take a look around and see what you find.

And then you have the writer's block. You know, when you want to write so badly and yet nothing comes to you and you just stare at your screen waiting for something magical to happen and yet nothing does and you feel like this:  ➡➡➡

You're not alone. We feel the pain just like you do sometimes. That's when it's time to step away from the keys or put down the pen and go do something other than write. I know you're probably thinking, "Isn't the whole point TO WRITE?" Well, yes. But I found that hanging out with my friends or family or just watching Netflix helped inspire me a little and pushed me out of the writer's block. Do something that gets you out of the house if you can. The world can be very interesting and you might experience something that gets the gears going again.

I'm no NaNoWriMo veteran and I'm still learning how to fully get through it but the bottom line is just to write that story of yours and don't give up until it's finished! Don't worry about whether it's at it's best, you can edit stuff later. Just let your heart tell you what to write and don't let that little critical voice in your head get to you. It's annoying anyway so why listen to it when you're writing?

So as of this first update, I'm currently at a little over 2,000 words and I plan on writing more later today. I'm super stoked about the story line I decided to go with and I can't wait to post it to Wattpad for the world to read. Hopefully I'll be able to complete NaNoWriMo again this year and have another story that I'm proud of. So what's your piece of advice for writing? Leave a comment down below because I think the writers of the world would love to know! Including me. Write on bookworms! See you at 50,000 words!