Writing tools are only part of the equation. The other part is YOU! The person who holds the pencil to write on the paper. Tools aren't good if the person isn't good. If the person is good, then the tools doesn't really matter.
What kind of techniques do I have in order to be successful in Nanowrimo?
1. Type fast. Type as fast as you can speak. Either do it with special keyboard (I use Apple Wireless Keyboard) or with a speech recognition software (I recommend Dragon Naturally Speaking) that works with your speech. The goal is to be able to reach the rate of 40 WPM or better.
2. Be able to type as you speak. This isn't as easy as it sounds, because like everything else, it requires practice. Plan to spend at least a few weeks learning this skill. It actually took me over 2 months before I get comfortable doing it. I couldn't believe how hard it is to type what I'm saying as I am saying it! Mind you, I'm the guy who type college paper the night before it was due. I can definitely type fast, but somehow, speaking while typing requires a whole new mental practice.
3. Be able to tell your story to a friend. Yup. This is the big secret! Your friend ask you how the story goes, and you say, "It was a dark and stormy night." And just go on and tell the story. When you couple this with technique number 2, then magic happens! You can type your story out very, very fast!
4. Know your story cold. The beginning, the development, the climax, and the ending. All the characters. All the location. There are planner, pantser, and percolator. I'm the percolator type. I ran the same story over and over, changing the details all the time. The major details stays the same, though, and I know then, that the story is good.
5. Be able to improvise. There is nothing wrong with being a pantser. What if you get stuck? An old trick is to introduce a new character that upsets the balance. The King of England suddenly develop interest in your character's "poodle haircut". You probably will have to edit the character later, but you see how your run-down character suddenly develop a royal persona in order to interact with the king? Edit it a little bit, and you have high-repute banker and some banter where your character tries to swindle an unsecured personal loan to solve his current girl-friend crisis. The skill of improvisation is a good thing to have.
6. Edit later. Another big trick. Remember how you tell your story to a friend? You don't backspace over your speech, you amend it. Likewise, when you type your nanowrimo story, you don't backspace over words, you amend it. It's okay to fix spelling errors at the end of the typing sessions, but I will limit it to that. I will not edit for structure or diction or anything like that. I will type in several variations of words, such as "big, large, gargantuan, elephantine, (to be edited later)" or something like it.
7. Work constantly. Even if it's only 15 minutes, do it! You need to get into a habit of pushing it. Do better than yesterday. If you're busy, then coming up with one hour per day to work can be a challenge. Do it! If you fail, then at least you get 30 minutes of writing done. That's 1000 words in my case. Make it up on the weekend. It's a whole lot easier to come up with 4 hours on weekend, than trying to come up with 8 hours on weekend. So, there is really no excuse. You need to type every day! Better to overshoot your word count than to come up short by 1K!
8. Have an outline. Know what you want to say at all times. Write down nifty passages as they occur and put it in appropriate section of the outline. Therefore, you won't have to struggle to remember the nifty conversation you thought of days before the start of nanowrimo. I actually write down my outline with pen and paper. I do not use outliner program such as Scrivener. I can't. I use Kindle Fire HD to write. If you can use Scrivener, then good for you!
9. Decide on Genre. Put down on paper, what is your story about? Is it comedy? Tragedy? Horror? Sci-fi? Adventure? Romance? Different genre requires different characterization. Although not strictly necessary, this helps with your writing. Your writing talent does have a bearing on your story. For some reason, all my Fantasy story comes out as Alternative History genre. All my Tragedy stories comes out as Dark Comedy genre. I guess there is a limit to my writing skill after all. Doesn't matter. Stick with what I can do, and so should you.
And that's it! Practice typing while speaking, do it fast, following your outline, and have fun!
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