One of the joys of writing is that it's an intensely personal experience. At the end of the day, it comes down to you and your preferred writing tool.

That brings joy to many, but it can also be lonely, even dispiriting. Sometimes it's nice to have company. Hence, one of our favorite Bardsy sayings: work independently, together.

As you'd imagine, a key benefit of working together is motivation. And, there is no bigger contemporary fount of mass motivation than NaNoWriMo. On the other hand, there's good reason to think carefully before you take the NaNoWriMo plunge.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. During November, writers across the globe will pick up their "pencils" to write a novel, knowing innumerable peers are doing the same.

This international writing challenge's goal is simple: write 50,000 words between November 1st and 30th. According to the guidelines, writers can start a brand new novel or choose to continue one they’ve already begun. In return, NaNoWriMo offers:

When deciding if you want to participate in National Novel Writing Month, first consider your personality. If you relish this kind of challenge, go for it! On the other hand, if you find this kind of pressure a bit much, you may benefit from deviating from their guidelines. Either way, these tips will aid you on your quest to complete your novel.

1. Set Realistic Goals!

Writing 50,000 words in 30 days is a significant goal that can understandably overwhelm or discourage writers. Doing some math, 50,000 words in 30 days comes out to approximately 1,667 words per day. Only writing Monday through Friday? You'll need to crank out about 2,273 words a day. Weekend warriors need to reach 6,250 words a day to succeed. Moreover, it would be nice to have more than just 50,000 random words; you'd like those words to resemble a story.

Setting realistic goals means taking a hard look at how much time you have to devote to writing and knowing yourself. If your attention fails after an hour, don’t schedule lengthy writing sessions. Alternatively, if you know you work best when you settle in for the long haul, make sure your plan accounts for that. Most importantly: don't set yourself up for failure; set your target wisely, even if it isn’t the official challenge goal.

As always, there’s no right or wrong writing process, only what works for you.

2. Jump-Start Your Story With Bardsy's Story Wheel

Every story - and its motivation - stems from an idea. Then, with effort and time, your idea grows into a novel. Think tadpole to frog.

Hence our recommendation: start with an idea you love, for example, a character, setting or theme. Then, use our Story Wheel in our free Better Storytelling Course to develop the rest. Notice that the Story Wheel features the five elements as coequal and interdependent (in line with the advice that you can start anywhere). Once you build momentum, turn to the other elements on your way to a great novel.

3. Build and Rehearse Your Minimum Complete Story

To stay on track throughout the writing process, you'll need to be able to distill your whole story into a few sentences. You'll use this "Minimum Complete Story" as a 10,000-foot overview to guide and check your work. This MCS should include the main characters and world, adding the inciting incident, peak, and resolution. When you're done, the conflict and theme should be crystal clear. With your lovable idea firmly in mind, it may take as little as three minutes to rough one out.

Consider a minimal Star Wars. A princess' plea prompts Luke Skywalker, an orphaned farm boy on a desert planet, to battle the evil galactic empire. He learns the Force, mystical skills of renowned ancient knights, the Jedi, from his mentor. With newfound power and friends, he comes of age, rescues the princess and destroys the empire's ultimate weapon. This snapshot is a complete narrative but not a chronology. It also doesn't include editorial, like "this is space fantasy." Nor is it a tease or "flap copy." It's a simple blueprint, a story in miniature that you can remember and literally keep in mind.

Keep rehearsing your MCS until it becomes second nature and you can tell it by heart. This is the key to applying your MCS to your writing. Practice keeping the whole thing in mind and continue working on your novel, knowing your mind will implicitly rearrange and update it as your story changes. Best of all, you'll know you're ready to move on when your MCS aligns perfectly with your 1st draft.

4. Write Your First Chapter

The key to your novel's success is ensuring the elements discussed above build on each other into a coherent totality. A great first chapter, in this vein, establishes the foundation for a successful manuscript. Likewise, a great first chapter is the best sample to hand to an agent or reader to compel them to "buy" the rest of it. In our experience and research, the most efficient way to write a successful novel turns on developing a useful MCS and a strong first chapter before anything else. That being said, sometimes efficiency shouldn't be a primary goal, nor will that approach work for all writers.

Use your Minimum Complete Story (MCS) to write a first chapter that introduces your reader to your story's world, main character(s), conflict, inciting incident, and theme. Once you've finished, feel free to submit it to our Anthology Contest to receive professional feedback.

Our editing team will evaluate your first chapter and identify any issues in your chapter as well as others that could cause trouble down the road. We also give money to and publish the winners!

5. Tie in the Second Chapter

After you have an adequate, provisional first chapter drafted, you can accelerate and move on to the next. Above all, make sure the elements you established in chapter one tie into chapter two. The conflict, for example, you began should grow. Include your first plot points to follow your inciting incident while you carefully develop your characters and world.

6. And so on…

By then, you should be well-acquainted with your MCS. Let it guide you as you complete your first draft. At some point, you'll also benefit from making an outline, even if you adapt it as your story progresses. Of course, this point differs from writer to writer.

7. Finally, Have a Post-NaNoWriMo Plan

Reading over this blog, it sounds pretty easy - trust us, it's not. So, at the end of November, take stock of what you've written. If life happens and you don't hit your goal of 50,000 words, don't let that stop you. Take a moment to be proud of whatever you've accomplished! Let's repeat this: no matter how many words you write over the next month, the important thing is not to give up when December 1st inevitably arrives.

By that date, if you haven't already, submit your first chapter to our Winter Anthology Contest. Not only could you earn a coveted spot in our First Chapters Anthology, but you could win $1,000 or $50 as well. All entrants will get valuable editorial feedback that will validate what you've accomplished and guide your next efforts.

Click here to submit your first chapter to our 2023 Winter Anthology Contest.