How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo: 7 Helpful Resources

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is nearly here. If you’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo before, it’s a 30-day challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November.

Now, that’s the official challenge, but I love adapting NaNoWriMo to my own writing goals. It’s a fantastic way to motivate yourself to make progress or get started on any writing project (fiction or nonfiction) that you’ve been procrastinating over.

I’ve put together this article rounding up lots of resources I’ve created over the years to help you crush your writing goals this upcoming month, whether you’re taking part in the challenge or not. Let’s dive in.

1. How to Adapt NaNoWriMo to Reach Your Writing Goals

Does the NaNoWriMo challenge sound intimidating? Maybe you don’t have an idea for a story, or you have an idea but not a plot, or maybe you’re not even interested in writing fiction. In this post, I share how to adapt the challenge and use it to test story ideas, work on nonfiction projects (like churning out a series of blog posts), and much more.

2. Five Strategies That Will Help You “Win” NaNoWriMo

In this article, I share my top five tips for getting the most out of the challenge and “winning” on November 30. These tips can help you work towards completing any writing project whether you are participating in NaNoWriMo or not.

3. How to Turn an Idea Into a Story

Want to participate in NaNoWriMo but don’t have any clue what story to write? In this article and video, I share a simple exercise for capturing and developing story ideas.

4. Five Powerful Character Development Exercises

In this article, I share five creative writing exercises that will help you create unforgettable characters for your NaNo novel. These exercises will guide you to examine your characters on a deeper level so you write memorable characters and a thought-provoking story that will delight your readers.

5. How to Plot Your Book: The Hero’s Journey Story Structure

This video (captions available) is all about the fantastic story template called the Hero’s Journey. I look at how you can use this template for both fiction and nonfiction to make your writing more compelling and captivate your readers. It’s an excellent method to use for plotting your NaNo novel in advance or just to keep in your head as a guide while you write.

Also check out the snowflake method.

6. Six Strategies That Will Help You Finish A Big Writing Project

A big writing project comes with many more challenges than writing a blog post or a short story. In this article, I share more tips for how to schedule your time and motivate yourself to finish big writing projects.

7. Twenty of the Best Free Online Tools for Writers

This is a roundup of a few of my favorite free writing apps. Several of these are excellent to use during NaNoWriMo. For example, the Reedsy Book Editor is perfect for those who want a simpler solution than Scrivener. I prefer organizing my fiction projects in Reedsy.

I hope these resources help you get the most out of the challenge. No matter whether you decide to follow the official rules or bend them to your own project, I wish you success if you jump into NaNoWriMo. Happy writing!

Thanks for reading! I hope this blog post inspires you. Which is your favorite resource? Let me know in the comments.

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