NaNo Coach: What's In Your NaNo Emergency Kit?

This season we’ve brought on published authors to serve as NaNo Coaches to help guide you to reaching 50,000 words. Our first week’s NaNo Coach, Teri Brown, shares her words of wisdom below:

I’ve done NaNoWriMo three times, and won all three times (two of those NaNo drafts became published novels). To say that I love NaNoWriMo is an understatement: I love the concept, the camaraderie and the challenge. But, despite all this, it is still a huge undertaking—you need to be prepared. So I have assembled a NaNo Emergency Preparedness Kit. If I’ve left anything out, let me know:

Coffee: What kind of coffee is up to you, but being a Pacific North Westerner I’m very picky about my coffee. During NaNo, I utilize the drip coffee maker, the French press, and the Keurig. If you’re a tea drinker, just do whatever it is that you do…

Chocolate: It’s been proven that not only does chocolate stimulate your happy brain chemicals, but also the neurons that allow you to think up and type new words. This is fact.

A Cheerleader: Everyone needs a cheerleader. Writing a novel is hard. Writing a novel in 30 days is really hard. You need someone behind you when things get rough. Figure out who your cheerleader is going to be, pass them the golden pom-poms, and let them know when you need a good rah rah.

A Twitter handle and a working knowledge of hashtags: Even if you spurn social media, NaNoWriMo is the one time of the year during which you should crawl down off that high horse and ride the Twitter train. Why? Let me count the ways:

You can connect with thousands and thousands of other Wrimos.
You can get breaking news from NaNoWriMo Headquarters.
You can receive all sorts of tips from each week’s #NaNoCoach.
You can race other writers through @NaNoWordSprints.
It’s challenging. Try coming up with something cool to say in 140 characters late at night when you’ve been writing for twelve hours and nothing makes sense. It’s like trying to solve the New York Times crossword puzzle after imbibing a bottle of vino.

Mad skills for silencing your inner editor: This one is a toughie and many people have problems with it. Just the fact that others struggle with the big IE is a huge relief to me. Honestly, it’s like wrapping myself in a huge NaNoWriMo hug.

Try writing a paragraph and misspelling every other word. This will make your inner editor so nuts he, she, or it won’t even notice normal mistakes. Trust me on this one.

A healthy dose of denial. No, writing 50,000 words in a month is normal. You are not crazy. This is not insane.

A little self-respect and self-love.  I mention having a cheerleader above, but in reality, you have to be your biggest cheerleader. No one can win NaNo but you, and you have to believe that you can do it.

Go forth and write, people! 

Teri Brown is the author of Born of Illusion  (Balzer+Bray) and the Summerset Abbey series, (Gallery Books) You can follow her on Twitter, or check out her website.

Top photo modified from one taken by hownowdesign.