Ten Tips for Getting Through NaNoWriMo without Losing Your Mind (Part II)

1. Technically by the rules of NNWM, you’re not allowed to begin putting pen to paper or fingers to keys until midnight local time on November 1. That does not mean you can’t begin to brainstorm and keep ideas in your head, so by all means, begin to do so. Think first of a genre or a character before even devising a plot, and at least begin to think of a hook for that character. It’s much easier to have one main protagonist whose psyche you can really mine for material than a huge, sweeping ensemble cast when it comes to your NNWM book, primarily due to the short word count and abbreviated time you have to work. Make this character fully vivid in your mind so that by the time you sit down to write your first few sentences, you can simply mine that character’s personality for material, even if you have yet to design the plot.