#NaNoWriMo2021 Prep

As October rolls on apace, writers everywhere are preparing for National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNoWriMo.

If it feels a little late to be preparing to pen those first important words on 1 November 2021 – it isn’t!

There are useful steps you can take between now and then, steps that will help you make decisions about your novel before you start typing.

This is the research, reading and thinking phase. So here are a few resources, immediately accessible, that will help shape your writing.

Emma Darwin and This Itch of Writing
Follow a high-quality writing blog such as This Itch of Writing from Emma Darwin (follow her on Twitter at @emma_darwin). For both overview and detail, you can’t beat Emma’s advice. A seriously good starting place for the serious writer.

Mslexia
Mslexia is a top-quality publication in terms of both content and presentation. It’s informative, inspiring and up to date. It’s vibrant and fresh. It has verve. With both detailed writing advice and a wider focus (on genre, and the world of publishing), it cannot fail to be helpful to writers. Follow @Mslexia on Twitter to get a flavour of things. Oh, and subscribe if you can – there are perks for subscribers. You can purchase digital versions immediately from their website.

You can also download for immediate use the Mslexia mini guide A Novel in Nine Steps for coffee-break inspiration. Advice, exercises, and pointers to help shape your novel. All for the bargain price of £3. Brilliant.

FutureLearn
FutureLearn provide free, online, high-quality courses in nearly every area you can think of, delivered by various institutions including top universities. There are lots of courses covering history and literature, and some aimed at writers too. Their Start Writing Fiction course is available to start now, through The Open University.
 
So get stuck in to any or all of these, and prepare to write! Good luck!