I had prepared a good outline, so I had a fairly good rhythm when transitioning from scene to scene. I would come home from work, cook dinner for the family, and sat down for 3-4 hours each night to hit my word count. I chose to spread my word quota evenly across every day of the month. The key is not too get behind, especially since Thanksgiving will be towards the end of the month. This means 1,700ish words a day for some, or 1,000 words a day during the work week and then make up for the rest on the weekend. To write 50,000 words a month, you have to pace yourself. It’s butt glued to the chair and hands tied to the keyboard. November – The Month of (Intense) Writing My mind was made up and I decided to join the challenge to write my book.

So when I researched writing novels on the internet, I found out that NaNoWriMo was right around the corner. One day, I brought a notepad and a pen with me to lunch, and I started jotting down some story ideas, something like a mischieveous ghost at the Heidelberg castle and it had to be a love story. We were stationed in Germany at the time, and I couldn’t find a book that I was interested in enough to read. You can actually link up with fellow writers in your area and even meet up for a “write-in” at a coffee shop or a book store.įor me, this is how my first novel, The Heidelberg Ghost, was born. Also, create a NaNoWriMo account and read over the tutorials, FAQs, and read and post on the forums. Use this month to think about what kind of novel you want to write, brainstorm some plot ideas on paper, and you may even prepare an outline. I wrote this blog post a month early so you have some time to prepare if you want to participate. In this post I’ll share the basics of how NaNoWriMo works and a bit of my own experience of writing my 50,000 words of my first book. The goal is to start writing the first 50,000 words of your novel in the month of November. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. You’ve always been an avid reader and every once and a while you come across a book that makes you think “I can do better than that!” You’ve toyed with the thought of writing your own book many times, but always brushed the idea aside.

The Heidelberg Ghost by Nickie Cochran