10 things you can do to conquer NaNoWriMo

Last updated on 24 June 2025

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Attention: NaNoWriMo shut down in 2025. Char over at The Plottery has a succinct blog post about the closure and what happened. I encourage you to read it. You can still, of course, do your own writing challenge like NaNo once was, and I think this post will still be helpful for you.

It’s nearly time for you to conquer NaNoWriMo!

Eeep! I’m super pumped about trying to write a novel in a month again. For the past two years I’ve managed to get over the word goal, so that’s been pretty exciting. For both years I’ve done it, I’ve worked on the same story. I know you’re not supposed to, but oops.

This year, however, I’m going to be working on the sequel. Super excited to just start writing! If you’re thinking about doing National Novel Writing Month, or maybe you’re coming back for a second year (or third, or fourth, or tenth), I thought I’d give you some tips on how you can conquer NaNo and make it to the end of the month with at least 50,000 words and still be sane (neither are guaranteed, though, especially not the latter).

Before November

1. Think about what you’re going to write about

It may seem obvious, but really and truly think about it. The more you think about it before November rolls around, the less you have to think about it in November. It will cut into your valuable writing time. And you’ll need all the time can get.

2. Write lists

Once you’ve got a general idea for your story, make lists. You guys know I love lists, and NaNo is no different. Write lists of everything – your characters, major and minor, their characteristics, their loves and hates, their best friends or sidekicks, their family ties, plot twists, places and place names – if you think it will be in the story, write a list about it. Think about all the options. Your lists might change along the way – perhaps your character isn’t actually one thing, they’re actually another – but the main idea is getting all the options down so you have more to work with, come November.

3. If you’re more visual, brainstorm

Grab your pretty coloured markers and a large bit of paper and go nuts with your ideas.

Draw connections between characters, draw a map our your setting – city, village, mountain range, pirate ship, M&M factory -, if you’re a skilled drawer (or even if you’re super good at stick people), draw your characters. What do they look like? What do they wear? Do the communities or groups of people in your story have different colours that represent them? Or flags? If you think of it, draw it. Jot it down and connect it to another doodle on your page.

4. Take a notebook everywhere you go

Everywhere. If you see something, hear something, think of something, you need to write it down. You may not use it later for your story, but what if you do? What if that random thought at 6pm on a bus home is the thought that will make your story? Write.It.Down.  This is something you should do all the time, not just before November.

It’s November!

5. Read the NaNo pep talks

Posted on the NaNoWriMo website there are pep talks from authors, from editors, from publishers, and more. Read these. Read them all. Seriously. They are there to help motivate you, to give you pointers and tips, to make sure you’re still alive and breathing, and more importantly, writing. Over the few years I’ve been doing NaNo, I’ve found these pep talks so super encouraging and motivating, and that’s exactly what they’re there for. Read them.

6. Talk about your story with someone

If this isn’t something that you find comfortable (I know I don’t! Heck…), but if you have one friend who is either doing NaNo too, or who loves to read or write, then mull your ideas over with them. let them interrupt you, let them ask you questions (especially the ‘what if…’ questions), let them give you alternative options to the ones you have. They might say something that changes your entire story, or bring to light a problem that will definitely need fixing, or they may give you a solution for that plot hole.

7. Set aside time and write every day

To make it to 50,000 within the month, you need discipline. And discipline is hard, I know.

But you have to set some time aside every.single.day to write.

If you’re one who likes routine, make it the same time every day. If you can’t function like that, make sure you write before your head hits the pillow. 50,000 words in a month is only 1,677 words a day.  Sounds like a lot, but it’s not really.

You just have to write. if you find yourself on a roll, but you’ve already written your daily amount, don’t stop now. Keep going. if the next day rolls around and you find yourself ahead of schedule, don’t slack off. Keep to your 1,677 a day even if you’re over and past the ‘on-track’ moment. Use your time wisely and get those words out.

8. Even when you have writer’s block, write

Writer’s block comes to us all.

Even the most famous writers who have written dozens of books have writer’s block. It’s normal. But it doesn’t have to own you and your writing.

If you can’t think of what happens next, write anyway. Skip ahead in your story, in you’re writing chronologically, write the end. Take a scene that you’ve already written and re-write it, with a different outcome. Write your character’s biography. Kill your character, or make them do something that they would never do. Start a paragraph with ‘The sky was cloudless’ and see what happens.

Find writing prompts online and write something, anything. Writing prompts are fantastic because, even if they have nothing to do with your story, they might trigger something in your mind or in your typing and that may lead to a whole new idea for your novel. Or you may find that you can actually use the writing prompt result in your story. Whatever you do, keep writing.

After November

9. Keep writing

I’m really bad at this.

When November and NaNo ends, everyone tends to heave a sigh of relief – You’ve made it through! Congratulations! Even if you didn’t manage to get to 50,000 the main thing is that you do write, and you did start a fantastic project. But now November’s over…what are you going to do about it? Come back to your story. Decide for yourself to look at your story again every week, either to read what you wrote and start editing it, or to continue the story that you so rudely dumped. Ha. No but really.

Your story that you worked so hard and diligently on wants to be finished. Or at least get to a stage where you can look at seriously editing it, and kill off characters you should have killed off already. If you don’t, then come next year, you’ll be moving on to another story and the year after that, and they year after that and soon you’ll have a bunch of unfinished stories. You’re already in the habit of writing every day, so why break it now?

10. Jump on board in March, which is National Novel Editing month

If you’ve done number 10, and you’ve continued to write, then you have a lot more story to be editing now.

NaNoEdMo is a great time to be heading right back to the start and re-reading, chopping bits out, writing more scenes in, throwing that character off a cliff, putting in a plot twist, fixing all those grammatical errors. You’ll find that you discover sections where you think ‘what the heck is this? They would never say that!’ and ‘Did I seriously write this garbage?!’, but you’ll also find yourself reading chapters when you think ‘wow. That’s really good’. Both are normal, both are good.

And there you have it. 10 things you can do to conquer NaNoWriMo, before, during and after. Hopefully, this has been helpful to you, and you are now all ready for this coming month. Let those creative juices flow!