NaNoWriMo
Today’s NaNoWriMo tips is a bit…different. We’ve all been working hard and this one is just a bit more fun than usual. After all, you’ve been working hard for weeks now and you deserve it!
So, we all know by now that distractions are the enemy and should be avoided at all costs, right?
But what if there was a way to get a tiny, minuscule distraction as a fun reward for reaching a certain word count? The kind of break from your writing that really is a reward and not an excuse to stop writing for ten minutes?
Let us you introduce to Written Kitten!
You write on the site, choosing how often you deserve a reward, every 100, 200, 500 or 1000 words. When you reach your goal the site will show you a picture of a kitten, randomly chosen from flickr.
Sounds like a fun way to change up your NaNoWriMo writing, but you’re more of a dog person? Not to worry, you can choose to be rewarded with puppy or bunny pictures instead.
Have some fun!
For all of our NaNoWriMo posts and tips, click here.
NaNoWriMo
Now that we’re in the final stretch of NaNoWriMo it’s more important than ever to stay focused. We live in a world where technology offers us an infinite number of distractions. Checking your phone, checking emails, updates, notifications; it’s a continuous stream of tempting distractions.
If it was just a temptation then perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad. But in today’s world, giving in to those distractions has become increasingly normalised. We all know someone who, even as they’re talking to you, has one eye on their phone. While that’s an extreme, we’re probably all guilty of thinking that we can multitask when we really should be concentrating.
Recently a number of apps and extensions have come out that can help you manage distracting websites and misguided attempts at multitasking. You can choose to block those sites that you find the most distracting for a scheduled amount of time. This allows you to work without losing focusing and giving into temptation.
When you come to the end of writing a long paragraph and you could do with a thirty second break, perhaps looking at cute videos of kittens on youtube. However, that little break distracts your writing flow. You aren’t just losing precious writing time from your NaNoWriMo schedule, you’re also losing inspiration.
We really like Cold Turkey. Once downloaded and set up there is no way to undo the set schedule. You cannot unblock distracting sites, all you can do is wait. It’s just you and your manuscript, with absolutely no distractions.
Our other rec is Q10. This site is not as strict as Cold Turkey, but it is a lot cuter. Q10 is a full screen text editor, so you can’t flip inbetween distracting tabs as you use it. It also has a typewriter sound effect as you type, so that it basically turns your computer in a typewriter. How utterly perfect for NaNoWriMo!
Keep writing! You’ve got this.
For all of our NaNoWriMo posts and tips, click here.
NaNoWriMo
Three weeks! Can you believe it?? Congratulations on making it this far! You’ve been working hard. The end is in sight and this is the final sprint.
In these tips, we’ve talked a lot about the various effects of mental drain on your writing; all the different techniques that you can use to make sure the creativity keeps flowing.
We haven’t talked the physical drain of NaNoWriMo. How are you feeling after all these extra hours sitting in front of a computer?
It might feel more comfortable to slump into your chair as you write. However after three weeks of that, your body is probably rebeling. Have you noticed any twinges in your shoulders, elbows or wrists? If so, now is the time to correct your writing posture. Sitting up straight does not feel as relaxed, but in the long term, and those writing hours can add up quickly, your body will be a lot happier if you sit up straight.
Although it will probably feel awkward and unnatural at first, paying attention to your posture will benefit your health over time. So, to get you started, consider using an extension like this one. It will send you a reminder message every so often, reminding you to correct your posture.
Keep writing! You’ve got this.
For all of our NaNoWriMo posts and tips, click here.
NaNoWriMo
We’ve talked before about how much of time-suck research can be and why you should skip over it. However we didn’t really touch on HOW to skip over parts of your story.
If no-one else is ever going to read your manuscript then you can just leave a note for yourself to come back and fill it in whenever you’ve done your research. That note can be as sloppy, ineligible or as nonsensical as you like, because all that matters is that it makes sense to you.
But what do you do if other people are going to be reading your manuscript? There is nothing more frustrating than asking for feedback from a friend and being told that there are some really confusing bits because your friend doesn’t understand the notes that you’ve left for yourself.
So, what’s the solution?
When a journalist writes an article there are often small details that they have yet to research. Rather than waiting to write the article, or using messy reminder notes for themselves, journalists use a standard notation. They simply type the letters ‘TK’ to show what they still need to research.
TK is useful because it’s a letter combo that appears very rarely in English words.
Because of its so uncommon it’s easy to search your document for every instance of TK and you’ll quickly find all the places you need to add in your research. Simply hit control+F to search your document.
As these letters are an industry standard, people will recognise what they mean. Any editor that reads your manuscript will understand that your sentence is not a nonsensical mess, but actually just a reminder to fill in the blanks.
Keep writing! You’ve got this.
For all of our NaNoWriMo posts and tips, click here.
NaNoWriMo
Your brain moves a lot faster than your fingers. It’s something we all know, but it’s particularly clear during NaNoWriMo. You’ve got the perfect sentence in your head, you type it out and then sit back to read it back. Suddenly you realize that you’ve skipped a few words. Even though you knew exactly what you wanted to type, your fingers just couldn’t keep up with your thoughts. So then you have to break your creative flow to go back and fill in those missing words.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could find a way to get the words on paper as quickly as you can think them? Definitely! But unfortunately we don’t, yet, have the technology to beam your novel directly out of your head. That would be amazing! And it would certainly make NaNoWriMo a lot easier!
Until the day we get that kind of tech, there’s still something we can do to make it easier to get our thoughts out. Dictation! There are numerous sites that allow you to use speech to text technology. You speak into your computer’s microphones and the text appears on the screen. Now the technology isn’t perfect. If you have a thick accent, or a cold, then it won’t work as well and it might misinterpret what you said. However, that’s nothing that a bit of later editing can’t fix. Best of all, these sites are free to use.
Even if you haven’t encountered that exact problem of missing words as you type, it’s still fun to try these sites. They’re a good way to change up your NaNoWriMo writing to stop from getting in a rut.
We really like the look of this website, although this one is great at putting in punctuation.
Keep writing! You’ve got this.
For all of our NaNoWriMo posts and tips, click here.
NaNoWriMo
Part of NaNoWriMo is writing quickly. You’re pushing towards a word count every day and you simply don’t have time to agonise over every word. You have an image in your head that you’re trying to describe and you just want to get your readers to see that same image. You’re not paying attention and your minds starts to take mental shortcuts.
We’re talking about the type of shortcuts that get used all the time in speech. Someone asks, “How are you feeling today?” and you don’t want to give them a long list of your symptoms, you just say, “I’m sick as a dog!”
Or maybe you’re feeling much better and you want to express that idea quickly. You might say, “I’m right as rain!”
These verbal shortcuts are cliches. A lot of the time they serve a valuable purpose. They can convey complex ideas with very few words and because they’re so common everyone knows what you’re talking about. That’s a really handy thing when you’re talking to someone
It’s bad when you write in cliches. Readers want you to transport them into your fictional, NaNoWriMo world. If you use the same tired cliches that they use everyday then it feels boring. You need to take care to avoid cliches in your writing. The problem is, we’re all so used to cliches that sometimes we don’t even recognise them when they’re right in front of us.
Here is a useful online dictionary of cliches. If you’re worried that you are unwittingly using cliches then you can use this as a tool to check if it really is a cliche or not.
Check out our full list of posts here.
