The biggest annual fiction writing competition in the world NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) will kick off in just a couple of weeks. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a novel of 50,000 words in just one month! Participants can submit their word counts, earn badges, and participate in local events.
Last year, I ran a 30-Day Writing Challenge for non-fiction authors to coincide with the event but I found that people got side-tracked and couldn’t complete the challenge. If you’d like to try your hand at completing the first draft of your book by the end of November, there are some tips you can adapt and use from the NaNoWriMo gurus.
The folks at Reedsy came up with 41 tips for writers taking the challenge. I’ve reviewed them and provided a list below of the ones that can be applied to non-fiction writing. You can get the details on each tip at the Reedsy Blog. I’ve kept the numbers the same to make it easy for you to find them in the original post:
Tip 1: Love Your Topic
Write about what you know and what you’re passionate about. You will do additional research as you’re writing, but you need to start with a base of knowledge. Remember that expertise is a continuum and even though you may be at a level 4 in a subject, you can still teach people who are at levels 1 through 3.
Tip 2: Understand what people like to read
Today’s reader doesn’t want a 300 page, densely written book. They want a short 150 -200 page book that focuses on one issue.
Tips 10, 11, 12, 22, and 31: Find a sustainable writing routine
To finish your manuscript, you will need to get into a writing zone. Ideally, you will find time every day to write because the more you write, the better your writing will become and the faster you’ll be able to achieve your daily writing goal. Make a game of finishing your daily word count. Reward yourself with a coffee treat, some social media play time, or TV time with the family. Do whatever makes you smile and look forward to the reward.
Tip 14: Don’t be afraid of mistakes
Even though you’ll start with a mind map that outlines your content, as you start writing, you’ll find that some topics don’t fit or you’ll uncover new topics that need to be addressed in your book. Go with the flow and don’t feel so restricted that you become afraid to make adjustments.
Tips 16, 23, 33, 34, 35, 37, and 40: Don’t try for perfection
When writing the first draft, your goal is to get the ideas out of your head and onto paper. Don’t worry about errors or mistakes in grammar at this stage. Your manuscript will be polished to perfection during the editing process.
You will do the first edit after putting your manuscript away for a few days. Not looking at it will give you the benefit of perspective and you can approach the editing process with fresh eyes. Read your manuscript out loud to uncover problems more easily. Your Beta Readers will provide an outside view of your writing and will call out anything that’s confusing or unclear.
In the self-editing process, remove any words that don’t add value. Adverbs are typical culprits along with the use of too many adjectives and excessive use of the word ‘that’.
After your self-edit, you’ll hire a professional editor, but you’ll want your manuscript to be as clean as possible. You don’t want to waste time and money having an editor fix obvious problems you could have addressed with a self-edit. I’m always one of the Beta Readers for my private clients, and I coach them on what needs to be fixed before taking the step of engaging a professional editor.
Tip 17: You can’t fix something that doesn’t exist
It’s scary to write your first book, but if you never get started, people who desperately need your knowledge and expertise will be without a resource that could potentially change their lives for the better.
Tip 30: If you get writer’s block, move on to something else
The reason I teach my clients to use a mind map instead of a traditional outline is to help them avoid writer’s block. When writing from a mind map, you write on a sub-topic and only after you get all of them written do you sequence them into logical chapters. That approach gives the writer the freedom to work on whatever they feel comfortable with on any given day as opposed to feeling obligated to write the next chapter in the sequence.
Whether you’re participating in NaNoWriMo or just working at your own pace, the above tips can help you at every stage of the writing process.
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