How do you get ready for NaNoWriMo?

Edited for readability. Passages from the original recording that are out of date have been left out and are marked in brackets.

The indie author revolution has been around for more than a decade, but we indies continue to push the boundaries of what we're capable of, from getting over initial prejudices to staring down perfectionism and author imposter syndrome. We've become a force to reckon with indie authors now wear more hats than ever, as we strive to create a career full of meaning, prosperity and potential. We've doubled the demands and continue to be rebels in the face of adversity. Now, after years of hearing the shout of hustle and grind, we indies are rebelling again.

Gone are the days of publishing a book a month until we drop. And in its place, sow the seeds of a better way to rapid release, a way that feels incredible as we build a sustainable, lifelong author career that not only increases our visibility and royalties, but it's all done with intention and ease. If you're ready to buck the system and become the visionary entrepreneur I know you're meant to be. You've come to the right place.

I'm Carissa Andrews, international bestselling indie author, and this is the Author Revolution podcast. Well, hey there, revolutionary authors. Can you believe we're already in October? It's crazy.

I swear to God. I blinked my eyes and it was like September was here and then it was gone. Poof! So here we are, Preptober, for those of you in the know.

Well, you already know. For those of you not in the know, well, come on guys, get with it. October is called Preptober because of NaNoWriMo National Novel Writing Month, which starts November 1st. And for those of you who don't know, I am a big NaNoWriMo fan.

I have been doing NaNoWriMo since 2010, and I don't even know how many times I have actually participated, not tracked the whole thing on their platform. However, I do want you to know that we're gearing up to get ready, right? October is the month where we're planning and we're prepping, and we're getting our stories all ready to go so that when we get to November 1st, we can hit the ground running with the 1,667 words per day in order to write our first draft of our novels. When I first started this whole thing back in 2010, I honestly didn't know it could be done.

And maybe you're in the same boat. I mean, really a book in a month? How is that possible? But as I started going about writing pandemics, I realized that the more exciting the book writing got, the easier the words flowed, the more exciting stuff came up, the more I wanted to write, and so on.

And 1,667 words really wasn't that big of a deal. Now, on a normal daily basis, when I'm doing my writing, I'm writing about 2000 words per day. And so 1,667 seems like kind of like a break in some ways. Right?

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Now I'm partway through my book because I'm actually writing two right now, but I could use a little kick in the pants. I'm going to be honest, I have had a really busy summer. I've been doing a lot of different things, getting my mindset right, and it's really kind of, detracted me a little bit from my writing. My Jenny thinks that I'm spending way too much time on Author Revolution, because of course, she's being paid to promote my books.

But for me, I have some really fun, exciting things for you guys. And so I have to go where my creativity and my inspiration are striking a little.

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When it comes to NaNoWriMo, I was taking a look at their website today just to see what they offer in terms of Preptober. Now, if you're interested in doing a little more in depth prepping and planning for your series or your book, I do want you to head over to NaNoWriMo website. Right now. They have some weekly course type situations.

It's more like, I don't know, different events, I guess, where they're teaching you different aspects of how to prep for NaNoWriMo. And then it's in specific to NaNoWriMo, like being able to fit it into your life and making sure that you're successful with writing your novel in this month. So there are six step formula, and I want you to think about this

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Let's go back to them there. Step one is developing your idea, figuring out what your high level concept is.

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With NaNoWriMo, they have some really great sheets that you can download to go a little bit further into the ideation of what it is you really want to be writing about, you know, what is your plotline going to look like? And they do that in a way where you're you're really breaking everything down into a couple of sentences so that, you know, it's it's like an elevator pitch when you're trying to explain to a potential reader or, literary agent or whatever what your idea is all about. That's a high level concept, and you're going to be working on that through this step one on NaNoWriMo website. Now, step two is to create complex, believable characters because, let's face it, characters.

You could have the I don't know if you plot line ever, but if your characters are complex and believable and your readers can relate to them, it'll carry the story along perfectly. Fine characters are really some of the most important elements of your entire book, of your entire series, and you don't want to, I guess Gyp that particular process because it's super important. Step three construct a detailed plot or outline. Now here's one that I don't always agree with.

So it depends on the type of author you are. So some people are pantsers, obviously some people are plotters. So constructing a detailed plot or outline isn't always the way to go. It can be, but it isn't always so.

I personally consider myself a hybrid, plotter. So I like to discovery write a little bit, and I'd like to plot a little bit. So what I do is I give myself a skeletal outline, and I'll also kind of give myself a chapter by chapter synopsis where there's just like, I don't know, 1 or 2 sentences about what I think this chapter is going to be about, so that it gives me an idea of how the story is going to flow from start to finish. And what that does is it really just helps me to tighten up my plot lines, tighten up my story, make sure that I'm going in the right direction, and not writing myself into some sort of weird hole, and I can flow forward.

But the thing is, as soon as I'm in the plots, I don't know if this has ever happened to you guys, but as soon as I'm in there and I'm writing it, my characters sometimes just do their own thing. They just wander off and do their own thing, but sometimes what they do is way more believable or way more interesting than anything I was coming up with when I was in that part of my brain that's plotting. My creative brain is way cooler than my, plotting brain, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. So if you're like me, constructing a detailed plot or outline isn't necessarily something you have to do, but it is something if you are that kind of person and they give you some tips and tricks and tools on how to do that, and even have a quiz on their website, where you can fill out the quiz, try to figure out what kind of plotter you are and what you should try out when you are trying your plotting scenario.

So perhaps that's something that's interesting to you.

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So then step four is to build a strong world for those characters. Now this is especially important when you are writing in fantasy or sci fi or horror, because you want to have a setting that is going to, I guess, impress upon your characters. It's going to be interesting to your readers, and you want it to be unique enough that it really, I don't know, makes the story whole. It gives that ambiance, that energy to the whole story.

On NaNoWriMo website, they have some really awesome tips on how to go about worldbuilding. And it's a book. It's mostly questions, if I'm perfectly honest, that you're asking yourself like, what kind of things do you want to see in this world? If you're doing magical elements, for example, or anything along those lines, they're all within there.

Now, in Rapid Release Roadmap, I have a template for Scrivener users where it has the whole world building questions and templates built within there. And so if you've got questions or you're trying to worldbuilding, you're trying to dig deeper. You can use that template to flesh that out and really kind of pull all of the information from your mind or your imagination so that you can be ready to go when NaNoWriMo hits on November 1st. Okay, so step five is to organize your life to support your writing goals.

Obviously, with NaNoWriMo, they are wanting you to really think about in October how you are going to set yourself up to succeed. Remember what I said about mindset? It's super important. And this to me is saying that they understand that whole aspect as well.

They know that in order to succeed, you know, coming November 1st, you have to set yourself up prior to November 1st so that your mindset is ready to rock and roll and you're going to hit that ground running when you're first starting out. I'm not going to lie, 1,667 words seems like an awful lot, but it truly can become a an easy thing if you allow it to be so. So if you tell yourself this isn't difficult, this is easy. I can write these words quickly.

I know what's happening in this scene, especially if you do know what happens in the scene. Sometimes it means sitting down and visualizing a little bit.

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You can meditate on what it is you want, this next scene, whatever it is, for the day to look like. So I give you some affirmations in the beginning of the meditation, and then at the end of it, we visualize so that we can hit the ground running and write what is coming to us in our imagination through that meditation. Super powerful. Okay, so step six is find, schedule and manage your time.

Now we talk a lot about this in Rapid Release Roadmap. What kind of author are you like? Are you a morning writer? Are your morning creative?

Are you a midday creative? Are you an afternoon or evening? Now? For me, I am definitely a morning creative person.

I love writing like mid-morning to I guess lunchtime is my favorite time to write. It's when I am most creative. It's when all the ideas are sparking and it's the part where it's just, I don't know, it's morning. I love that morning time, but it doesn't always work out for me.

Sometimes that creative time really has to be part of my ideation and visualization for the future. So I have to become the visionary for my business, whether it be the author, business or author revolution. And so I sometimes have to use that time wisely so that I can be more visionary and create the things I need to create for my business. And when that happens, then that means I need to use my creativity in other ways later on in the day.

So then what I'll do is I'll shift my writing time to the afternoon and I'll. I'll do I have it actually, a really cool way to be able to trick my brain into feeling like it's doing what it needs to do. I have this app called Binaural, and what it does is it allows you to tap into different frequencies so that you are able to get your brainwaves to function at a higher level. So for example, there's theta, which is your meditation and or sleep state.

That's where you want to put yourself into. If you're going to be listening to things that are more subliminal, for instance. And then there's alpha, which is more just about relaxation and kind of your dreaming state. Most of the time we're sitting in beta, so our normal waking hours were in beta.

It's normal activity. It's the things that we're thinking about in a normal basis. But when we want to problem solve and we want to think about things in a really creative way, we want to start picking it up into a gamma frequency. And so I put on this Binaural app and I play it in the background of my music.

So for those of you who have never listened to gamma waves, you probably need to work up to it a little bit because it's a very high frequency. So maybe have like if you get this app, for instance, have the volume of it turn down just a little bit. I know that in the beginning when I first was trying it out or years ago now, it would almost give me a headache because it's, it's so high of a frequency. But I got used to it.

And now when I do it, if I put that on with my music overlaying the top of it. So I'll put my playlist on for whatever book I'm working on, I am almost instantly put into a state of mind where I can write and I can get things put on the page very quickly, and it's because that frequency has picked my brain waves up into that realm, and it's just allowing me to think all more clearly and function faster. So it's definitely something to try now, with NaNoWriMo. Now, when it comes to the finding your schedule and managing your time, they want you to know that this is doable even if you're working full time, even if you've got kids, you know, they give you tools on how to figure out what's the best time of morning, night, whatever what?

What's the best time of day for you to write? They they have another quiz that you can take if you're interested in that. But they also give you some tips and tricks on how to fit writing time in your day. So through different sprints and whatnot, they give you all sorts of different tools to be able to consider and find ways to manage the time so that you can get your 1,667 words in.

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Because sometimes we forget about all the little times, the little spaces in our day that we can write. And every word counts. Every. You know, if you're writing for just a couple of minutes and you get 50 words, well, that's 50 words less that you have to write later.

So don't Pooh Pooh it. Okay, so what I'm trying to say, make sure you give yourself the time and the space to kind of find those little pockets of time and make an effort. All right. So like I said today, there's a lot of things that are going on in this.

So we're gearing up for this Preptober. Hopefully you're starting already and you're kind of going to go through all this NaNoWriMo stuff.

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But overall, that's all the stuff I have today. I'm super excited about Preptober. I am also kind of in that planning phase myself and trying to think about where it is. I want my two books that I'm working on to go.

I'm halfway through both of them, which is super weird. I don't recommend doing two books at one time, but for whatever reason, Kindle Vella happened to start right at the same time as, my last six week writing sprint, and they've kind of overlapped each other. So I go back and forth between the two books. It's not ideal, but it's super fun depending on where I feel like going.

So it is what it is. It's just kind of how I'm writing this year. So just know that you can make things up as you go along. You can trust your instincts and trust your intuition for what you want to be writing whenever it does come up, because I think that's the fun of it, right?

Our job is to have fun with our writing.

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We totally got this. It's going to be an incredible time. I think that's enough talking for today. For whatever reason, I got on my soapbox, guys.

Okay, so I'm excited about NaNoWriMo. I hope you are too. So go forth and start your author revolution.