Halfway Through NaNoWriMo: Here’s How to Power Through

Oh, we’re halfway there and living on a prayer! It’s the middle of November and we are almost halfway through NaNoWriMo. At this point, you are probably falling into one of two groups. Those who are in a good place and still chugging along or those who are behind and trying their best to keep up.

Normally, I see the cursor blinking and the word count growing, but not as quickly as I would like, and find myself losing interest. My ideas are drying up and motivation is waning. At this point, I find myself getting creative to achieve my writing goals.

Just in case you are finding yourself in the same boat this November, I am going to share some of my favorite methods of getting the creative juices flowing. Some of these I use as warm-ups or thought starters, and others I use to get the story done.

Writing Prompts:

These are what I turn to to get my creative juices flowing when I am stuck or can’t get started. I regularly post some I have used on my Instagram to inspire others through their creative blocks. I use a mixture of first-line prompts, dialogue prompts, images, and situational prompts.

• First Line Prompt: Prompts that provide the first sentence or opening line of a story
• Image Prompt: Prompts that use a single word or image as inspiration
• Situational Prompt: Prompts that set up a specific scenario or event
• Dialogue Prompt: Prompts that begin with or center on a piece of dialogue

Word Sprints:

These are my second favorite method of getting words on the page. They are what they sound like. You set a timer and try to write as many words as you can before the timer runs out. Sometimes these don’t provide me with the challenge I need, so I add a little competition.

Method #1: I set an overall word goal I want to accomplish on that day. I then run my first spring as normal. After I complete that, I write down the timeframe and words I completed. For the rest of the day, I am trying to beat the amount of words in each session.

Method # 2: If I am writing with a friend, we will bet on Word Wars. So we will each put a dollar in the center of the table, then start the timer. At the end of the sprint, we see who wrote the most words in that session and they get the money. You can do this with different prizes as well (candy, stationary, change, the next round of coffee, etc)

Crawls:

Time to get into my absolute favorite method for getting tons of words on the page and feeling accomplished. Crawls guide you through story-driven challenges based on some of your favorite worlds or around your favorite topics. They break down the daunting goal of 1,667 words a day into a fun task I can get lost in.

I have a tendency to get bored with my current projects and am constantly looking for something to break up the mundanity of writing staring at the cursor blinking while trying to figure out when I get to take a break. Some Crawls out there even fold in housework or fitness, so nothing falls to the wayside during NaNo.

If you can focus and bang out fifty thousand words with no problem, I envy you. If you are like me and need something else to keep you going at this halfway point, try some methods above! They can spark your creativity and get you out of your slump. If you try out a crawl, let me know which one is your favorite.