How to Win in the NaNoWriMo

By Charlene Delfin


NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. It says “national,” but it is actually worldwide. It happens on the month of November every year. During the NaNoWriMo, writers join together via the Internet to write their novels. So how do you win the NaNoWriMo? Simple: Just write a story that is 50,000 words long. But do you know what the secret is? You have to prepare a lot to be able to achieve this number of words.


  1. Know yourself. In October, write a diary and write about all of the things that you do, think and plan. Keeping a diary can consume so much time, so you may dedicate only a few sentences to each area of your life. Writing about all of these things can help you find out how much time you spend on them and how much time you need to spend on more activities. Also, time yourself. Know how much time it takes you to finish certain things like eating breakfast, cleaning the computer, etc.
  2. Plan ahead. Look to November and December and make a list of all of the things that you have to do. Plan how you will juggle these things with your writing.
  3. Prioritize and sacrifice. List all of your activities and determine which ones you really need to do and which ones you can live without. You will be surprised at how many activities that you do every day are actually not that useful to you. You can sacrifice some activities so that you can use the time on more important activities.
  4. Practice. Take writing workshops and write at least one paragraph about something every day. You have a muscle called “writing muscle” and like all muscles, this needs to be exercised everyday to be strong. Train your writing muscle by writing 300 words each day.
  5. Prepare an outline. Simply speaking, an outline is a list of important events that take place in a story. These events are usually the ones that move, twist and conclude the plot. Prepare an outline for your novel. Preparing an outline makes you more likely to win because it keeps you tuned in on what is going on with your story. Without an outline, you might get lost toward a completely different story and realizing this could make you lost hope about winning.
  6. Write a story that is similar to your life. Writers on NaNoWriMo claim that it inspires creativity, but as a newbie on NaNoWriMo, I had a hard time with creativity because I was required to write very quickly. Being creative needs lots of concentration, time and effort. To be able to still produce a story in all the stress of the time pressure, turn your own life into a research material for your story. Imagine what your life would be like if it were a fiction book and write about that. Be inspired by people and places in your life. The photo above shows a place within the Riverbanks Center, Marikina City, where I grew up. I often take settings and memories from this place when writing a story quickly.
  7. Keep checking your NaNoWriMo stats. When the NaNoWriMo begins, you will have a page in your NaNoWriMo account called Stats and it will keep a chart of your word count, the words that you need to write everyday to win, etc. Check this everyday to know how far behind you are, or how far ahead you are.
  8. When writing via the computer at night, use a word document or app that has a black background. Writing is a difficult job and writing via the computer at night is harder. Not only will your eyes get tired quickly with the natural colors of the screen, it also has bad effects on your health. On Google Chrome, install the app Writer and Hacker’s View. You may switch on Hacker’s View at night and switch it off during the day. You may use Writer at night and just use Microsoft Office Word during the day.


So these are the tips for winning the NaNoWriMo. If you wish, use these tips to prepare early for NaNoWriMo 2014. Happy writing.