I’ve attempted NaNoWriMo four times (2002, 2007, 2008, 2009) and I’ve won the last two years. To win is to write a minimum of 50,000 words written entirely in the month of November, keeping track of the daily wordcount on the NaNoWriMo.org website, which is entirely governed by the honor system. In both of my winning cases I won before Thanksgiving out of necessity. So considering I’ve both attempted and failed and attempted and won — the latter being much more recent than the former — I figured I’d impart a few hard-won bits of advice I learned along the way for any of you intrepid souls attempting a first time NaNo experience this year. (Any past winners out there, feel free to add your own tips and advice in the comments!)

1. Plan as much as you can in advance.

With only FOUR DAYS left, I know it’s hard, but it’s not impossible to sit down and spend three hours or so this weekend plotting and brainstorming and taking notes. Who are your characters? (What are their names? I find I waste lots of time in November if I need to suddenly create a character name.) What do they want? What are their obstacles? Literary agent Nathan Bransford has a great post to this effect, reminding NaNo-ers of the basic tenets of starting any new writing project. Once you know your protagonist, start in on the other major characters and some of the secondary characters. Give yourself as fully-fleshed-out a cast as you can before you start, if you can. If you can’t, then work on plotting an outline or figuring out other elements: settings, places, obstacles, events, Things That Need to Happen, et cetera. We all follow different creative processes and have different ways of tackling the same writing problems so I can’t speak for what may be best for your process. But the bottom line: the more you go in knowing, the less you’ll need to stop and figure out along the way.

2. Write something every day. Don’t give yourself a day off.

Pace for NaNoWriMo is 1,667 words a day, which can be a brief chapter, part of a scene, an entire scene — but it’s not overwhelming. What is overwhelming is realizing that you are 6,000 words behind pace and you need to catch up by yesterday. By writing a little each day and not taking a day off — which admittedly is hard, but NaNo is about discipline — you’ll stay on pace and far away from tearing-out-your-hair territory. That said, sometimes it’s hard to get in front of a computer, so I’ll suggest some of the things I did when I could not actually drag myself to write my 1,667 words for a day: I plotted and planned and made sure I knew what my next 3,000 or 9,000 words were going to be about. If you can’t write today, make triply sure you know what you’re writing tomorrow, or next week, because every little bit of NaNo planning helps, even when you’re in the thick of it.

3. You don’t have to start a new project for NaNo if you can find another way to get to 50,000 words.

It may seem a blasphemous thought: you can find a way to use NaNoWriMo to your best advantage, especially if you’re a writer normally. Though some would argue it’s “cheating” to do anything but the most traditional write-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kamikaze noveling for which NaNoWriMo is famous, I firmly believe — and talking to people at NaNoWriMo meet-up events, I’ve found everyone has agreed with me — that the #1 most important thing about NaNo is production. The actual 50,000 words. Not what document they’re being written for. Need to rewrite that old project you started five years ago but never got around to finishing? Do it! Have the first 20,000 words of a novel already sitting on your computer? Finish it! The nature of the challenge changes when you’re not writing-by-the-seat-of-your-pants but having done a rewrite from the ground-up last year, I can attest that even though I knew my characters and I knew the plot, writing at a NaNoWriMo pace was still breathlessly challenging. I adored every moment of it and I even finished well before Thanksgiving (which is always my personal goal). Did that make it any easier? Maybe. But I still skipped scenes (leaving big [MORE!] brackets) and for the most part had NO idea what the ending was going to be, but I didn’t let that get in the way of getting my 50,000 words done.

4. Have fun.

Don’t kill yourself to win NaNoWriMo. Shirk the chores for a few weeks — have the roommate take over dishes duty for a while! — but don’t sacrifice your first born child over it. Yes, it’s difficult, yes it can be stressful, especially if you fall behind pace — but don’t forget, you’re not alone. One of the best things about NaNo, for me, is the community aspect of the challenge. Go to the forums and talk with other NaNo-ers to get ideas or to find a place to whine to sympathetic ears. Pit yourself against strangers and friends and make it a fun competition. Find your local NaNo chapter’s in-person meet ups and go — they do word sprints and give out free prizes! But always remember: it’s okay to quit. It’s okay to finish with less than the goal, especially if you’ve never tackled the NaNo beast before, especially if you come down with a bout of the flu or the Day Job flares up and consumes your soul. It’s okay if your natural writing style or natural writing pace isn’t a minimum of 1,667 words a day; that’s a challenging pace for even a lot of professional writers. But at the same time, one of the best parts of NaNo is the fact that there are thousands of people attempting the same [seemingly] insurmountable challenge along with you, and you can succeed or fail with others, and giggle about it afterward. (Or go to your local Thank God It’s Over party on December 1st; that’s always a great way to finish the month!)

I’m downright enthusiastic about NaNo time every year because it always energizes me and gets me working. Having that little word count updater on NaNoWriMo.org acting like my ball-and-chain every day motivates me like nothing else in my writing life ever has. Seeing how many hundreds of writers are ahead of me in pace, or behind me, both challenges me and heartens me. Writing is typically a solitary profession but during the month of November when I’m writing I know I’m among friends. And I love every moment.