Okay, NaNoWriMo is over.

If you completed your 50,000 words (and if the Twitterverse is anything to go by, a lot of people did), congratulations.

If you didn’t…don’t give up.

Think back to the beginning of NaNoWriMo and the fresh faced young author eager to prove to the world that their story was worth telling, worth reading, maybe even worth publishing. If that enthusiasm is still there keep hold of it. If it’s gone or life has worn it down to a less exuberant level, nurture it. Think about what you love about writing and what prompted you to attempt NaNoWriMo in the first place and try to rekindle that spirit.

Imagine your story out there in the world being read by thousands of people. Imagine the joy you’ll bring. Imagine the huge advances if you like (although I hope there’s more to your interest in writing than money).

Whatever it takes, don’t stop writing.

What THEY Don’t Want You To Know
I’ll let you into a secret…There’s actually no rule that says you can only commit to writing during November.

Shocking, I know.

And guess what, even if you did complete your NaNoWriMo novel (and congratulations again by the way), you still don’t have to stop writing.

It’s true – you can write all year round if you want to!

If you don’t feel comfortable trying to write 50,000 words a month, that’s alright. In fact, it’s probably a sane attitude to take. But set yourself some sort of target. When I’m writing a novel I aim for at least five hundred words a day. That takes about an hour for me but could be considerably less for you NaNoWriMo authors.

Whatever the number, commit to something – a daily or weekly or even monthly word count. Tell your friends and family or total strangers on Twitter what that goal is, then hold yourself accountable to it. Every time your target seems unattainable, remind yourself how much you want to write, how much you enjoy it. Then sit down at your PC or your laptop or typewriter or quill and parchment and write.

Try to get yourself into a routine or look for ways to wake up your muse. Every writer is different, find what works for you and run with it.

Find an online writing challenge and use that to kick start your creativity if you want to.

Stick to the NaNoWriMo rules if you want to.

Post your progress on a blog or Twitter if you want to.

Use a book to inspire you if you want to.

Throw out your editor and write whatever comes into your head if you want to.

Use a kitten related writing tool if you want to.

But whatever you do. Write.

Finishing a novel is immensely satisfying, just ask anyone who’s done it. A month ago you were determined to do just that, what’s changed?

Okay, it’s the halfway point of NaNoWriMo, or thereabouts. How are you doing?

By now you should be at about 25,000 words, give or take a few thousand. If you are, congratulations, keep up the good work. If not, don’t panic and certainly don’t give up. There’s still plenty of time.

You’re obviously not writing now (after all, you’re reading my blog) so take a few minutes, step back and think about where you are – or aren’t. Assuming you really want to complete your novel…what’s stopping you?

I don’t have time – What can you give up for the next fifteen days? Television? Movies? Shopping? Work? (Okay, maybe not that last one but if you’ve got spare vacation days perhaps now is the time to use them). How about sleep? Can you get up an hour earlier, go to bed an hour later? It’s always possible to find something to give up or postpone – if you really want to.

It’s not good enough - Are you giving in to your internal editor? Are you spending too long crafting the perfect sentence? Don’t worry about quality yet. There’ll be time to revise and rewrite later, NaNoWriMo is an excuse to vomit whatever you can find lurking in your subconscious onto the page – it doesn’t have to be good or even make sense.

I’m blocked – Inspiration can come from many sources – your own experiences, events in the news or random crap on the Internet. Do a random search on Twitter or Google - you never know what you might find. Alternatively, here’s a list of guaranteed* successful plot twists – pick one at random and see where it takes you.

Your lead character discovers something important is missing.
Your hero is double crossed by his best friend/wife/mother/pet.
Someone everyone thought was dead, isn’t.
It begins to rain.
It stops raining.
Someone tries to kill your lead character.
The police/military/clan of evil weevils attack.
It’s a conspiracy.
There’s an explosion (hell if it’s good enough for Stephen King, it’s good enough for you).
The last spaceship off the planet has been sabotaged.
They’ve been poisoned!
The hero falls in love – with the enemy.
Suddenly, there’s an eclipse.
The main character receives a mysterious letter/telegram/tweet.
The dream the hero thought was a dream wasn’t.
The story isn’t taking place in the place everyone thinks it’s taking place in.
Time for a flashback.
The main character is killed.
They were right!
They were wrong!
A stranger arrives with an important message.
The floor collapses.
Fight!
Someone falls ill.
The bad guy is the good guy’s father (I know, I know – this is harder than it looks).
The statue/obelisk/monkey holds the key to the mystery.
It starts to snow.
Jump forward in time.
An apple falls from the tree.
They were lying!
They were telling the truth!
The lead character is set adrift/abandoned/lost.
A porcupine.

If, by some bizarre twist of fate, you manage to find a way to use one of those in your NaNoWriMo (or any other) novel, let me know. In the meantime, whatever your NaNoWriMo obstacle is, don’t give up – just think of the sense of accomplishment you’ll feel when you have a completed novel under your belt.

* Guarantee not valid anywhere

It’s November already and that means it’s time for NaNoWriMo.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, NaNoWriMo is the National Novel Writing Month. Across the world, hundreds of thousands of writers are furiously scribbling away, trying to write a 50,000+ word novel by November 30th. That’s a lot of words in not a lot of time.

For me personally, that means an average of four hours of writing a day for 30 days. If I managed to remove distractions like Google+, Twitter and Facebook then I might be able to get that down to three hours a day but even then, that’s a big commitment when you’re holding down a day job and training for a half marathon. Despite the challenge, thousands of people manage to finish their novels every year. Me, I’ll stick to a more modest goal – and fail miserably*. Maybe next year I’ll find a way to pick up the pace enough to join the fun.

In the meantime, I’ll wish everyone taking part in NaNoWriMo luck, and keep my eye out for the next NaNoWriMo success story.

If you want to find out more – and it’s never too late to join in (okay, maybe not never, but you know what I mean) – you can find more information on the official website and there’s a nice article on the benefits of writing daily on LifeHacker. If you’re on Twitter, follow #nanowrimo for some insight into who’s writing what and how they’re doing.

* That’s my way of saying I didn’t do any writing yesterday although I blame the technical difficulties with the website for at least some of my failure.