Wanna be a NaNo winner?

If you want one of these ... you're going to have to work for it! And I mean work!

I earned myself one of these last year when I hit over 51,000 words in November - and I intend to do the same this year. When you get right down to it - it's not such an impossible goal to achieve! But you have to be prepared!

So how did I do it? Well I thought about my hero and heroine all throughout the month of October. I knew who they were, where they had come from and why they would react the way that they did! I fell in love with my hero - which every self-respecting romance writer has to do - and gave him a heroine I knew he wouldn't be able to resist.

On the 1st of November I hit the ground running. I knew I'd have to write a minimum of 1,667 words a day so I set myself that target. I kept track of my word counts religiously and in the days that I didn't write, I knew I'd have to catch up the words in the days that I did. Yes you heard right - there were days I didn't write and I still made it!

In total there were 7 days throughout November when I didn't write. There were days when my total word count was less than target and then of course there were days when I was in "the zone" and I wrote four or five thousand words! It is completely and utterly exhilirating to finish a 50,000 word novel in one month! The sense of achievement is tremendous! I cannot recommend it enough.

If I had to think about the best tip I could give you ... don't edit! Do NOT go over what you've written the day before. You simply don't have the time and if you did do it you run the risk of your internal critic interfering with your progress! So beware!

Remember ... all that matters is that you reach your word count! Trust me, when you do you'll know what I'm talking about! Euphoria!