Tuesday's Tips for NaNoWriMo Writers

This week's installment of Tuesday's Tips is dedicated to those insane souls who have taken up the National Novel Writing Month challenge: The completion of a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days. While some of the tip's titles may seem sorta obvious, I'd still recommend checking them out. After all, you're attempting to write a book in a month. You're gonna need all the help you can get.


With NaNowriMo already 36 hours in (EST), it may be a bit late to point you towards Robot's 6's advice regarding Hooking Readers in the First 8 Pages.


Keep in mind, though, that hooking the reader is only the beginning (literally!). Once that's accomplished, you've gotta figure out a way to keep them hooked. How? Cliffhangers.


As the pile of paper you hope to hold in your hands come December 1st will be -- at best -- a first draft, Between Fact & Fiction's Tips for First Drafting seems pretty damned apt.


There's no two ways about it -- 50,000 words is a lot of words. The temptation to pad things out with a bunch of thesaurus entries will no doubt prove awfully tempting. But when choosing words, should you eschew the arcane? (Or, to put it simpler: Big words -- yes or no?)


The Writer's Digest's 4 Techniques to Fire Up Your Fiction is actually closer to 27 techniques, as each of the aforementioned 4 are outline headings with 6 or 7 sub-divisions. Tricky? Yes. But who in their right mind is gonna purposefully click on a link boasting over two dozen writing tips when they're frantically trying to type 1,667 words per day?


To close this out, I'm offering a special link to those of you who promised your friends and family that you would not be participating in this year's madness. Consider it a sort of self-help group for folks trying to kick the NaNoWriMo habit: All Things Good's Saying No NaNoWriMo.


Related: Top 10 Night Before NaNoWriMo Tweets