Heroes Insider Weekly

Investigative Tips: Write. And don't stop writing

Invisible Woman

 

Write. And don’t stop writing. By @ ConniByron

So, we’ve been over search engines. Remember that one? Google!

Then where to find ideas. Everywhere!

And some programs that can help you on your way.

The next huge thing is write!

NaNoWriMo

I’m a huge fan of NaNoWriMo for getting your first draft finished. Sure, you can plan to write 50’000 words in whichever month you wish. Want to write 100’000 words, go ahead!

For me, I know everyone else is doing it during November and I can do it too. Plus, the great incentives to write and pep talks and a whole heap of other tips on how to complete the challenge clogging up your inbox.

For those not in the know. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a writing event held in November each year. Thousands of writers join and millions of words are written. The goal is to write 50’000 words within the month. Sound easy? Sometimes it is. First time I flew through it. Second… Well, I just scratched in! I didn’t think I had a chance in hell of making it. However, I got there in the end.

As I said before. There are great incentives to writing during NaNoWriMo. Prizes can be won. Friends can be made and also the biggest prize is you receive a draft manuscript at the end. And a certificate you can print off at the end to say you won! Okay, I only do it for the certificate. Not really, but I do have a few pinned to my wall!

So November 2014, pencil the month in and get writing. See if you can complete that elusive novel.

Camp NaNoWriMo

If you can’t wait until November, Camp NaNoWriMo runs in April and July. Unlike NaNoWriMo the have flexible word counts and cabins to chat to other members and follow their progress.

They are signing up members now and setting cabins on the 25th of March. Better get in quick. However, you can be assigned after the 25th. I just like to start early. Meet my fellow cabin members before we all start going nuts with our writing.

My username over there is Cbyron if anyone wants to look me up.

If anyone wants proof these challenges work. I’ve got three stories on Wattpad which were written during these months. Dragon Tails, my first novel and my first time on NaNo. Is now self published and up to a few weeks ago was available on Wattpad.

Demonic Creations is another one I wrote in April last year. Still to be edited. Not sure when that one will make an appearance.

Dragon Tails Part 2 was written in July last year and still not completed. I think it’s going to be much longer than the first as it’s already at 80’000 words! The draft is available on Wattpad to have a squiz at.

And my latest one is Sixth Extinction. Still a rough edited draft. Most chapters are available and I’m beginning to edit the finished manuscript now! I will be updating the completed story soon.

There are many other novels on Wattpad completed during NaNo. Do a search for the NaNoWriMo tag and you’ll see just how successful people have been with the event.

Minimize distractions

Turn off Facebook, place Word in full screen, Scrivener in full screen mode. YWriter too! If all the different formatting options still distract you, go back to the standard notepad!

Some of these new writing tools actually stop us from writing to keep track of the plot. Screw it! It’s a draft. Just write. It doesn’t matter if your writing suddenly turns out to be some pissed off rant about how you’re going to strangle your little brother because he never paid board and now it’s come back to bite me in the arse. Wait, that changed halfway through. Aw well, might get some ideas for a sub plot to make the story more relatable to readers.

If it’s the internet distracting you, disconnect it and don’t hook it back up until you reach your goal. If you want to play that computer game, tell yourself you will do so only if you reach 2000 words today. One chapter to keep your readers happy on Wattpad.

Stop daydreaming!

Still having trouble keeping your fingers on the keyboard? Stop making coffee and thinking about what to write and check out these other ways.

The best way I found was time. See how many words you can write in 10 minutes. Then try beat it. Don’t worry if you don’t follow the right plot. Your main goal is to write. The ideas are there in your mind and they will eventually come out. If not while speed writing, then while editing.

I just found a awesome site. I was looking for another. But this one sounds way better and has more features and help for writers. http://www.finaldeadline.co.uk/

I’m playing around with it at the moment. And will write another article on the website I think. But for now, it’s a place where you can set your goal, write as many words as you can in a specific timeframe and if you stop writing and start daydreaming, it screams at you! I almost flipped out the back of my chair and I knew it was going to happen!

Writing means war

If you like to write with other people another great way to get your word count up is word wars!

Start a thread and ask people to join you as you pick a round time and how many minute you would like to war for and type as many words as you can then post up your results. I wrote Demonic Creations this way. I had 40k in no time! Yes, I know 10k short of the 50k goal, so I started another novel to make it up.

Don’t cheat! It’s no fun when you cheat. So be honest and write as fast as you can to beat your competition. 

So get those hands attached to that keyboard or pen, whichever way your write, and get writing!

@ConniByron