Guest Post: Eliza Knight – Three, two, one… Blast Off!
Note from PJ Schnyder:
Every year I participate in NaNoWriMo and while I’m buried in the event trying to meet my contractual deadlines as well as hit my word count for my experimental project, I try to feature guest authors with posts on why they do (or do not) participate.
It’s a hectic season, plus this year I’ve also got the release of Sing for the Dead on November 4th! And the guests I’ve got lined up are super busy with great book news of their own. Happy dances all around. 
I’m very happy to have award-winning author, Eliza Knight, as my first guest for NaNoWriMo 2013.
Welcome to 30 days of chaos! Today is the first day of National Novel Writing Month (NANO), where thousands of writers throughout the world will hunker down at their computers, challenging themselves to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It’s a whirlwind of angst and excitement. By 11:59 pm on November 30th, you’ll feel accomplished, and wiped out. The skills I’ve learned in NANO have helped me to write faster throughout the rest of the year well, which can come in handy if on a deadline.
Let’s start the day off with a bang! I’ve written my top ten tips for a successful NANO.
Know your characters. You’ll get to know them better as you write, but the hardest thing to do on day one is, set out with a blank page AND a blank mind. Since today is day one, if you haven’t had a chance to get to know your characters—never fear! Take an hour or two and think about them. What are their goals, motivations, conflicts (internal/external)?
Know a good portion of your story. Just as I said above, if you haven’t gotten a skeleton yet, that’s okay. Take the time right now to figure this out. What is your starting point—what is the ending? What is the purpose of your story? What is intriguing about it? I like to do a quick outline, a roadmap if you will, that will lead me easily down the path from beginning to end. There will be changes along the way, and that’s okay, but at least I have an idea of where I want to be.
Set a daily wordcount and stick to it. Keep in mind days you know you may not get a chance to write—say, Thanksgiving. I calculate my daily word counts based on writing 5 days a week, so if I don’t end up meeting them, I have a few days leeway saved up. During NANO, it works out to 21 days of writing for me—which is roughly 2381 a day.
Gather your support system. You can do this in a number of ways: join the online community at http://nanowrimo.org/. Find your local NANO group and go to write-ins. Hook up with your social networking clan to encourage each other in your daily writing. Tell everyone you know that this is your goal for the month so when you have been wearing the same outfit for three days, they understand.
Don’t edit while you write. This is going to be the hardest part for a lot of people, but believe me, if you stop to edit, you’ll end up wasting a lot of valuable writing time. Save the editing for December.
Do sprints. Writing your entire word count at one sitting can be tough. Do it in sprints. I like to work in 500 to 1000 word sprints, or timed sprints. I might write for 15 minutes, then do something else. Or do a 1K1H with friends online – 1K words in 1 hour.
Write snappy dialogue. Dialogue always moves a story along. Don’t forget to use tags/action/narrative in your dialogue so we are a part of the conversation.
Cut the backstory. We don’t want to hear about how this all came to be. Throw us right into it, and lace the backstory throughout, using action, dialogue and some introspection to show us instead of dumping it all upfront.
Open with a hook. Great hooks to start a story with: action/danger, overpowering emotion, a shocking situation, evocative description, a unique/fresh character, foreshadowing, snappy/shocking dialogue.
Show don’t tell. Remember, readers want to experience your story. Don’t tell us what is happening, show us. Let it unfold in our minds like a movie. Use descriptions, sensory detail, internal thoughts, dialogue, physical action, conflict, emotion, all of these things to make your story come alive in our minds.
I could keep going forever, but I think this is enough to get your blasting off into the Nano-sphere. Best of luck to you!!! Ready….set…. GO!!!!!!!! See you at the finish!
Cheers,
Eliza
Eliza Knight is the multi-published, award-winning, Amazon best-selling author of sizzling historical romance and erotic romance. While not reading, writing or researching for her latest book, she chases after her three children. In her spare time (if there is such a thing…) she likes daydreaming, wine-tasting, traveling, hiking, staring at the stars, watching movies, shopping and visiting with family and friends. She lives atop a small mountain, and enjoys cold winter nights when she can curl up in front of a roaring fire with her own knight in shining armor.
Website: www.elizaknight.com
Blog: www.historyundressed.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/elizaknightauthor
Twitter: @ElizaKnight
