I’m doing NaNoWriMo this month – maybe you are too?

(For the uninitiated, “NaNoWriMo” stands for National Novel Writing Month. It happens every November, where people all over the world try to write a 50,000 word novel in a month.)

This is the eight book-length piece of fiction I’ve worked on (I have several unpublished manuscripts, plus three novels out there: Lycopolis, Oblivion and Dominion, and a novella coming soon). You’d think that, by now, the drafting might come easily! That’s not always the case, as you can see from my Facebook update six days into NaNo:

I know that many other writers find it tough to get through a whole first draft, too. It’s particularly difficult if you’ve never written a novel before – you might question whether you have the skills, or even the stamina, to see it through.

Whether or not you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo, here are four things to do – and four things not to do – if you want to finish your first draft.

(Note that these tips aren’t just for novelists. If you’re writing a novella, or even a long short story, they should help too; the same goes if you’re writing serial fiction – like a multi-chapter fanfiction.)

I’m going to assume, going into this, a couple of prerequisites:

• You’ve chosen an idea that you’re enthusiastic about. If that’s not the case, ask yourself why. Are you trying to write something purely for the money that you don’t really care about? (There’s nothing wrong with writing for money! But it’s an awful lot easier to do that as a freelancer than as a bored novelist.)
• You’ve got some sort of plan down on paper. It doesn’t need to be a detailed outline – but you should have a rough idea of the shape of your story. What’s the main conflict? How does it all end? What major plot points need to occur along the way? How will the events of the story change your characters?

So, with those in mind, here are four things to do and four things not to do, as you write your draft.

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