It's the final countdown! How are you doing with NaNoWriMo?
Whether or not you "win" this month, you've done something amazing. You've created something out of nothing and gotten words on the page. That's incredible.
Which is why...
Tip #1: Celebrate! Whether you wrote 50k or 20k, recognize your effort this month.
Tip #2: Take a break! Don't immediately jump into editing or publishing this book. Give yourself a little space to breathe and think. Then go back to it with fresh eyes in the new year.
If you've found these short "betweeniesodes" helpful, please email us and let us know! We're discussing new monthly themes to keep the tips rolling, like goal-setting and planning for the New Year in December, and editing strategies in January. We'd love your feedback!
You can reach us at info@authorwheel.com.
Want even more productivity tips? Check out our online course, Finish Your Novel Faster: https://www.authorwheel.com/finish-your-novel-faster
Get ready to accelerate your writing speed, stay motivated, and keep your story rolling!
Don't forget to join Megan's new Substack newsletter, Clarify | Simplify | Implement, where she's sharing all her thoughts on writing, publishing, and the author industry.
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Episode Transcript
Hi everyone and welcome to the final author
wheel, Nano-Rymo Betweeny Soad.
I'm award winning fantasyauthor, Megan Haskell.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
And I am USA Today best selling mystery thriller
author Greta Boris, and togetherwe are the author wheel.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
So when this episode airs, we are going to be at the
very end of the month.
It's the final countdown, thefinal deadline, and we hope that
everyone is way ahead of theirgoal and has more than achieved
the 50,000 words.
But if you're still heads down,well, stop listening to this
(00:39):
and go back and go writing.
Get writing, yes, finish it up.
You got this, you got this.
But for everybody else, ifyou're done or very, very close
to done, congratulations.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You just won.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Nano-Rymo.
And let me just throw in alittle.
Even if you wrote 25,000 wordsand not the 50, is it 50 or 55?
They?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
won 50, right?
I think it's 50.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah it's 50.
Yeah, even if it's half thatamount, the 25 or whatever,
that's a heck of a lot of wordsfor one month.
So whatever you did, you're awinner in our book, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
And that's the thing.
I think I'm going to be 100%transparent here.
I have never actually wonNano-Rymo.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Me neither.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And for me, in part it's because we host
Thanksgiving.
November is a very big, verybusy month for me and my family,
and so it's just, it's very.
It's a challenge beyond achallenge to even try, but I
always try because, even if Idon't quote unquote, when I'm
(01:50):
still making progress, I'm stillhave that forward momentum, I'm
still hopefully writing morewords than I otherwise would be
and pushing myself to do moreand write more and write faster,
and those are all tremendousgoals.
And so even if yeah, even ifyou got 25,000 words, even if
you got 10,000 words this month,that's 10,000 words you didn't
(02:11):
have last month.
So congratulations, you'redoing great.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yep, yep, and it's true.
When I was a personal trainer,I would always set a high goal
for clients work out five days aweek.
I knew they weren't gonna, butif you tell them five days a
week, they might get three.
If you told them three, they'dprobably only get one or two.
So, aiming for that 50,000,even if you don't get there, you
(02:37):
probably got a whole lot morewords, as Megan said, than you
would have gotten.
So just pat yourself on theback.
That's a great job.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Absolutely, and that's our first tip is to
celebrate no matter what you did.
If you tried this month, if youwere consistent, if you put
words on the page, if you madean effort and if you got more
done than you otherwise wouldhave, all of that is worth
celebrating.
And if you did achieve the goalof writing 50,000 words, and if
(03:06):
that was actually your full,complete manuscript, celebrate
it, right, everybody should becelebrating pursuing this crazy,
brutal, slightly masochisticgoal of writing.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So don't forget to celebrate.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Buy yourself a glass of wine or a little cupcake or
something, and enjoy it, becauseyou've done something really,
really hard.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yep.
So tip number two after you'vereached the end of your
manuscript, we really suggestthat you take a break.
It's nice to gain some distance.
Don't go back and immediatelystart revising and playing with
it and reading with it and allthat.
Take a break as long as you cantake.
(03:56):
So celebrate the holidaysstress-free, have some fun.
Put the manuscript away.
I know this is one of thosethings Stephen King says.
He puts everything down for atleast two weeks.
Some people don't have thatluxury because they have a
deadline, but chances are ifyou're doing nano-Rymo, you
don't.
So give it a break.
(04:17):
Then in a few weeks, load thatmanuscript onto some kind of
reader that you cannot edit.
So if you have the ability toformat it into a Kindle book and
put it onto your Kindle, that'sgreat.
Otherwise, you can put in PDFformat and put it onto some kind
of reader.
(04:38):
And then what I like to do isjust block out a couple of days
and I read my book as if I wasreading a book that I just
picked up at a bookstore.
I do keep a yellow pad next tome in case I want to jot down
some notes, because I just can'thelp myself, but I cannot edit
(05:00):
the manuscript directly and thatwill give you a good sense of
the flow of the novel, how thatstory holds together, maybe the
places that are dragging ormaybe some plot holes you need
to fill in.
But do a quick read a day ortwo, as much time as you can
afford to sit around and readand read it as quickly as you
(05:24):
can and just make some notes,but don't do any revisions yet.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah, yeah, and that's really key.
Number one, giving yourself themental space to take that break
so that you can read it as areader and not as an editor or
not as the author.
And then number two, that whenyou do go back and read it as an
editor, you now have a freshset of eyes.
(05:51):
So I think those are twodifferent brain spaces to be in,
but they're both important formaking sure that your book
actually is ready to go off, topitch to agents or self-publish,
depending on which path topublication you've decided you
want to choose.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Right, and speaking of getting your book ready for
publication, if you've foundthese tips that we've done
through October November helpfuland if you'd like us to kind of
do another set of tips forrevising your manuscript that we
could release in January,please do email us at info at
(06:34):
authorwheelcom.
You don't have to write somebig long email, just a quick
email and just say yes, revision, please.
You don't even have to sayplease, just say yes, revision.
I mean it could be that quick.
Just shoot us a line so that weknow and if that's something
that you guys find helpful, wewould be very happy to give you
(06:58):
our best revision tips in themonth of January.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Absolutely, absolutely All right.
Well, that's it for theNaNoWriMo tips.
Thank you all so much forjoining us on our Betweeny Soads
as we continue this authorwheelpodcast adventure.
We do hope they've been helpful, for sure, but do please email
us so that we actually know anddon't feel like we're shouting
(07:24):
into the void, because that candefinitely be a problem.
And in the meantime, keep yourstories rolling.
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