Okay, you've just shot out of the starting gate like a racehorse, pounding those keys, high with excitement and full of energy. Maybe you've got your planning board in front of you or a ton of post-it notes stacked by your computer. You even have a vision of hitting that magic 50,000 word count. Great!
Have you planned on how to sustain your stamina and pace?
No? Well then, let's talk about that because you're going to slack off at some point, whether because you're tired, feeling stuck in the great swampy middle of your novel (Jim Butcher, 2006), suffering from lack of sleep due to the time change next weekend or grappling with interruptions due to the holidays later this month - yes, Thanksgiving does fall at that critical point, only six days from deadline.
Are you planning on writing 500 words a day? 1,000 a day? More? After all, NanoWriMo is a marathon, a physical challenge as well as a mental challenge. Similar to marathon runners, your initial burst of speed is great, but a runner knows that their pace needs to adjust after the first few miles. They adjust their pace to something steadier in order to conserve energy for that final thrust of speed they'll need in those last grueling miles to the finish line.
You may be a writer but you need to think like an athlete.
Yes, as writers we do sit and write for hours, working our poor muse to death. Then we drop like flies, complaining of headaches, eye strain and the inability to turn our brains off. Hello, sound familiar? Mind / body connection?
STAMINA -- How to get it and keep it . . .
Hydration. We all know we need to hydrate throughout the day but often we don't. Tom Brady, formerly quarterback for the New England Patriots and now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and author of The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance (2017), claims you need to drink half your body weight in ounces (p.40). Phew, that's a lot of water! No, I'm not suggesting you drink that much but, while you're tapping away on your laptop, keep a water bottle by your side. Finished it? Refill it. And repeat. Hydration will keep you alert and help you maintain your stamina and pace over the next 29 days.
Snack healthy as if you're in training -- stock up on protein bars, granola, fresh fruit, veggies and nuts. Step away from that bowl of leftover Halloween candy! A sugar high may give you a temporary spurt but will leave you jittery and unable to concentrate. No concentration? No novel. And snacking healthy does not mean binge snacking -- one or two protein bars is good. Five? Not so much . . .
If you feel better, you'll write better; you'll write longer.
See you next Tuesday, November 9
(older Nano tips will be compiled on the NanoWriMo page of this blog)
Happy Writing! Claire H.
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