In less than four short days, National Novel Writing Month will be upon us. In thirty-days, writers around the world will be attempting to write 50,000 words all for the glory of saying "I did it!". If you are one of the crazed that will be joining in this event, here are some tips to help you make the most of this endeavor:
Cordon off your work area.
- If need be, stop off at your local animal shelter, offer to house a dog, the meaner the better (or perhaps the more loyal to it's caretaker) for the month and set up a kennel just at the door/opening to your work area to keep visitors at bay.
- Post Do No Disturb signs liberally about your work area.
- Offer to water potted cacti for the local nursery for the month on the condition you can take the cacti with you, then set it about your work area. This is something most anyone, even those with the blackest of thumbs can do, seeing that much like camels, cacti don't require a whole lot of watering.
- Stock up on beverages, protein powered snacks, and yes, chocolate.
- Change your answering machine/voice mail outgoing message. Remember to issue a threat to anyone attempting to contact you if it has nothing to do with getting your novel done.
- Flatly turn down all offers for Thanksgiving unless they are willing to feed you without disturbing you, your headphones, and whichever medium you are electing to use to write your novel.
- A word to the wise, do not offer to host Thanksgiving dinner at your house. Only an insane person (yours truly) would even contemplate such a ridiculous thing.
- On that note, also don't be tempted to hit the stores, shopping centers, malls or any other commercial wasteland of consumerism. Yes, there are incredible Black Friday deals, but you were going to run over to that POD (publish on demand) site online and have your novel printed and bound as a gift for each and every one of holiday "shop for" list, weren't you?
- If you are responsible for the care and feeding of children, it's perfectly acceptable to stock up on frozen and instant-meal-in-a-box dinners, they are more nutritious than the stuff that our mother's fed us and easy enough for even a five-year-old to make. Heck, that dog you brought home from the pound? Put 'em to work! And while you're stocking up, don't forget to get some for you too.
- Collect, buy, borrow, steal the following books:
- Unabridged dictionary
- Rand McNally Global Color Maps
- 2008, 2009, 2010 Writer's Market Editions (preferably the deluxe edition)
- Thesaurus
- And/or several Encyclopedia Britannica volumes
- Put the aforementioned books under your desk and use them as a footrest. You won't be needing this, you are writing, not researching, not editing, not proofing - just writing!
- For those of you with a needy spouse/partner/mate, for $14.50 you can alleviate that concern. Just follow the link here [mature, open-minded, humor-filled folks only, please]
- Be sure to get plenty of exercise as that keeps the blood circulating in your cranium and fingers. Remember that dog? Grab up a rubber ball and toss it around. That'll do it. Now get back to writing!
Cheers and the best of luck! Let us know how your venture is going by leaving a comment. Care to pick up a few supporters along the way? Leave your NaNoWriMo screenname with your post and let the real fun begin.
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