It's three weeks into National Novel Writing Month now, and I'm actually pretty happy with the way things have gone. I just reached 40,000 words today, so I'm on target to finish on time, barring any disasters. Honestly, I write so slowly I thought I'd only be somewhere around 20,000 now, so I'm pretty excited.
At the end of last month, I found my local group and attended a few of their meetings before November began to get some advice. I've had a chance to try most of it, now, and I think it's really helped.
First, they told me it's best to build up a buffer for yourself in the beginning, if at all possible, because you never know what's going to come up later in the month that requires your attention. I've been lucky, so far, and haven't really needed to use up that buffer. It does mean that I can have Thanksgiving off to spend with my family, though, so it was definitely worth it. It also gets harder to keep yourself motivated to keep meeting those daily goals as the month wears on. The middle days sometimes feel like the end is impossibly far away, and a buffer can help with that, too.
They also recommended attending as many write-ins as possible, where you meet up with other struggling writers to pound away at the keyboard and get more words down (or the leaps-and-bounds-ahead writers that make you suck it up and push yourself harder). I have done a few of those and got a lot of work done, but I don't think I'd recommend trying to hit them all. Pick the ones that most interest you, instead. Remember to consider travel time. The NaNo regions can cover some distance, so you might find yourself spending precious time driving when you could've gotten more work done if you'd stayed at home. That being said, if you're having a tough time and there's a meeting during your free time, the drive might just pay off.
If you're one of the unlucky ones whose region is so big that there aren't any meet ups near you, there are also virtual ones you can find on the WriMo website. Admittedly, I only tried one of these, so I didn't really get a good sampling of the process. Watching others type responses and word counts in the messages after sprints didn't really motivate me as much as in person. It does, however, work for others, so don't be afraid to give it a try if you're struggling.
Another WriMo also showed me how to find word crawls in the NaNo message boards which have helped keep me on task when writing on my own. Other writers post stories, similar to choose your own adventure, which require you to write a certain number of words before you can proceed. These can be extremely challenging, but, using them, I've managed to knock out 1500 words or so on a day when I didn't think I'd be able to write 5.
To any fellow WriMos out there, good luck and keep writing! Every word helps :)
