So we’re halfway through the second week of NaNoWriMo. The first week passed in a flurry of ideas and creativity and planning outlines. That initial excitement is starting to fade and there’s still a long way to go. How do you keep up the momentum to continue writing everyday?
Try making a writing schedule. Decide on a time, each and every day, that you are going to set aside to just write. It doesn’t have to be the same time every day. But you do have to plan a writing session every single day. By creating a schedule you are making a commitment to yourself that you are going to write. Every day, you should know that you have time set aside for your writing.
Once you’ve created your schedule, comes the hard part. You have to stick to it. That time is sacrosanct. You’re not going to skip that time, you’re not going to start late, you’re not going to let anything distract you from your writing. You joined NaNoWriMo because you have a novel inside you, bursting to get out. This is your time to get it done.
When you have a writing schedule something magical happens. After a few writing sessions, it starts getting easier to write. At first it’s tough. Maybe you’re not feeling energetic for tonight’s writing sesh, you’ve run out of inspiration or you’ve already written out all your good ideas. There’s a temptation to just give up on the writing session altogether, and come back to it once you’ve had some more ideas. But that’s a terrible habit. If you can teach yourself to push through and get writing, then you’ll be able to keep up the energy and enthusiasm that you had in Week One for the rest of the month.
See all our #NaNoWriMo posts here.