#1: Take advantage of the burst of adrenal in the beginning. It won’t last all month. Make your goal not 1,667 words per day, but 2,000 and upward. Mine? At least 5,000 for the first week.

#2: Make sure you know you actually want to write this story. Once you’ve started NaNo, there really isn’t any turning back. Sure you can scrap the project and develop a new one, but the chances of accomplishing your goal diminishes by…a lot.

#3: Know your goal. Do you want this published later? Is it for yourself? Why are you participating? Writing it down and keeping it visible helps.

#4: Recruit friends…and enemies. Friends will keep you on track. Enemies provide great challenges and bursts of energy that will prove helpful. That said, siblings are great.

#5: Remember why you started NaNo. Not everything is about the word count. Most likely you joined to have fun and meet like-minded writers. And that’s just what you’re going to do!

#6:Don’t get discouraged. Someone somewhere will write more, better, faster than you. Write for you.

# 7: Don’t completely forget friends and family. Though they may not understand, they’ll support you…maybe.

#8: Sleep! Did you know that getting REM sleep connects neurological pathways that not only make it easier to write in the morning but can be used as a method to solving a dilemma you are facing?

#9: Eat. Like sleep above, eating properly will nourish your brain and keep it healthy. You’re likely to think better and come up with better plot twists when the time comes.

#10: Stay off the internet…for long periods of time. If you’re like me, you get easily sucked in the internet. Instead of writing, you’ll blog about writing, you’ll visit forums on NaNo or other sites, you’ll even stare idly at a youtube video for half an hour instead of write. Does that sound familiar? The internet can be your friend, but in small quantities. I find unplugging the Ethernet cord or making sure I have at least half my required words for the day completely helps limit online use.

I hope these helped!