Five Books to Help You Win NaNoWriMo (and Improve Your Writing Craft)!
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National Novel Writing Month— Write a Book in Thirty Days!
For thousands of writers, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I look forward to this event every year, and so do many others!
On the 1st of November, writers all around the world begin their quest to write a fifty thousand word novel in just thirty days. You can write anything your heart desires, from fanfiction, to fantasy, to non-fiction, short stories, or memoirs. It’s all up to you.
All you have to do is input your daily word count to the NaNoWriMo website and watch the numbers climb! This may sound daunting, but broken down, it turns into a daily word count of 1,667 words. This is something anyone can achieve with a short amount of time each day, all you need is motivation.
This is the time to start that book you’ve been dreaming about! Thousands of other people from every corner of the globe are ready to start writing with you.
There is a great support system and so many resources out there for those who want to join in. You can join Facebook groups, find buddies on the NaNoWriMo platform, talk about it on twitter, and find like-minded writers on Instagram.
If this is your first time doing NaNoWriMo, October (also known as Preptober) is a great time to start planning if you haven’t done so already.
This is the opportune time to get to know your characters and develop an outline for your book. If you don’t enjoy planning, this could be as simple as jotting down a few bullet points and making some mood boards, or if you are a detailed planner (like me), this could mean writing a huge outline with scene level planning. Or you could be anywhere in between.
Whatever your method, these books can help you start out strong with advice on: outlining, plotting, character development, inspiration, getting motivated, and getting organised.
These are the books that have really helped me with my writing. These five books are the ones I love telling people about!
Free Nanowrimo word tracker at the end of this article!
1.Save the Cat! Writes A Novel by Jessica Brody
The Last Book on Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need
Good for- Story structure and outlining
If you only have time to read one book before NaNoWriMo, pick this one. This book breaks down plot points of a story into fifteen identifiable beats that you can use as a skeleton to outline your own story.
When I read this book, I had a lot of my own ‘aha’ moments. I had read quite a few books on outlining before, but this one just clicked with me. It breaks story structure down, so it’s simple to follow and includes relevant examples from popular books to help you understand. I highly recommend reading this one!
2. Creating Character Arcs by K.M. Weiland
The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development
Good for- Developing strong characters and character arcs
This is another book that just clicked with me. It will help you develop characters for your NaNoWriMo project that feel like real people, and will make you think past just their physical descriptions and basic character profiles.
You will learn to find out what their motivation is, what lie they believe about the world, and what happened in their back story that makes them the way they are.
I like this book because it makes you to ask the right questions about your characters to get to know them deeper yourself. It also shows you how to weave the character arcs into the story’s key plot points.
There is also a handy workbook you can purchase to go with this book.
3. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Creative Living Beyond Fear
Good for- Inspiration and living a creative life
There are so many good quotes in this book! I suggest saving some on your phone, computer, in a journal, or printing a few out to keep you motivated and inspired over NaNoWriMo.
I love this book because it just makes you want to get out there and start being creative. It is uplifting and super inspirational. It gives you permission to embrace the magic and start living a creative life.
It’s great for reading all at once and getting super inspired, or just dive into a chapter every now and then to fire up your creativity and get motivated.
4. 5,000 Words Per Hour by Chris Fox
Writer Faster, Write Smarter
Good for- Setting goals and writing faster
This is one book that I actually followed all the exercises and implemented all the suggestions. It works. No, I can’t write 5,000 words in an hour, but I doubled the amount of words I was writing per hour and I was pretty happy with that!
This book is only 88 pages, so you can get through it pretty quickly and get back to writing (but much faster)! This isn’t a magic trick to writing faster — it teaches you how to plan, how to track your writing statistics, how to do writing sprints, and makes you want to be more disciplined. It also includes a link for a spreadsheet to track your writing.
If you are serious about getting your daily word counts in for NaNoWriMo, this is a great tool that will help you save time and become more organised.
You can read this book for free by downloading it from Chris Fox’s website!
5. The Emotion Thesaurus (2nd edition) by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi
A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression
Good for- How to dramatise scenes using body language and emotion (showing, not telling)
This book is a great foundation for learning how to show a character’s emotions using body language, mental responses, and internal sensations. This book has great prompts for showing emotions and soon you’ll be able to come up with more on your own.
It’s also a great book to just flick through to get ideas or spark inspiration if you are stuck on a scene.
Make sure you get the second edition before NaNoWriMo. This one includes 55 extra entries and I love that it also includes power verbs for each emotion (active verbs that will add real force to your writing).
Side note- the authors also have a great website for writing resources that can help you in Preptober for NaNoWriMo. If you go to the Writing Tools page, I recommend downloading their pdf- Weak Verb Converter Tool. I use this one all the time, but there is a ton of other great stuff on there too.
Bonus Book Suggestions
If you want to go deeper into character development for your NaNoWriMo project, I highly recommend these three books, also by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi. Having strong characters is the foundation of any great story and these books can help you create lifelike, believable characters that will have your audience hooked.
Useful Resources for NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo Website - sign up today!
NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program- NaNoWriMo to support under-18 writers.
ProWritingAid- Self-editing software. If you need help with spelling, grammar, and editing this is a life saver! I use this every day (I’m terrible at spelling and grammar and this is amazing).
Scrivener- Writing software made for writers. This is my favourite program and is much better than Word because you can make so many folders and track chapters and scenes so easily. If you win NaNoWriMo, there will often be a discount code to purchase Scrivener.
Writers Helping Writers -Tools and Resources.
How to Make Your Writing More Sensitive- A very useful article
Chris Fox YouTube- Author of 5000 words per hour, Chris Fox, has a YouTube channel with great advice on writing and self publishing.
Abbie Emmons YouTube- Preptober playlist. Abbie Emmons has so many great videos for NaNoWriMo.
Useful (and fun) Accessories for NaNoWriMo
Free NaNoWriMo Word Tracker- I made this myself and you are welcome to use it if it helps you out! (See the picture below)
Bullet Journal- NaNoWriMo is the perfect time to start a bullet journal and get organised.
Cute NaNoWriMo and Preptober stickers- Handy stickers for planning.
Pastel Highlighters- These are my favourite highlighters and I use them so much when planning.
Mouse pad with wrist rest- This is a weird addition, but I got really sore wrists during my first NaNoWriMo. This squishy mouse pad really help.
Free NaNoWriMo Word Tracker 2022
50k NaNoWriMo Word Tracker
fill in the days of the week
Happy writing!
“A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? Or have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments☺️
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