April is right around the corner which means that the 2018 stint of Camp NaNoWriMo is almost here. If the peculiar name NaNoWriMo is familiar to you, you may know that it stands for National Novel Writing Month.

It’s the non-profit organization that encourages all writers interested in cranking out fiction to finish a whole novel in a matter of a month. Not only does the organization provide helpful resources and community involvement for willing writers, they also provide incentives for finishing your novel and give you the proper tools to fine-tune and distribute your novel how you’d like.

November is the official month for NaNoWriMo, but I mentioned April above because it’s an off-shoot month for fiction writers to take advantage of as well. If I’m not mistaken, July is another month in which Camp NaNoWriMo takes place.

I usually delve into the months of April and November to tackle either one of my unfinished stories. I always end up thinking to myself: “OK...You know, for the most part, where you want this science fiction story to go. You’ve set your word count goal. 50,000 words are attainable and you can do this!”

A lot of times, I end up abandoning a story, though. I swear, it’s like a cycle with my pre-novel ideas. First, I’m excited about the possibilities of the plot, the worldbuilding, and the characters. Then, I’m writing thousands and thousands of words in short amounts of time. Finally, I become either burnt out or I suffer a crazy writing blockage.

It is important, though, that I get back on the wagon, regroup, and reach my writing goals. I most definitely shouldn’t give up. Neither should you if you choose to participate in NaNoWriMo’s month-long challenges, other types of writing goals, or your own creative aspirations.

Each time I go back to building upon one of my sci-fi stories, or even my fan fiction, I take note of some things that I could’ve done differently. Just as we prepare for an exam by studying, we should ready ourselves for a challenge like NaNoWriMo.

50,000 words? It’s not impossible … but we must prepare. Preparation can come in the form of a story outline, character fact sheets, even a whole fact manual dedicated to your project just to have a more definite direction when you’re finally writing your heart out. The mistake I’ve made in previous years was trying to meet daily writing goals of about 1,667 words per day within the time of 30 or 31 days without a plan. How come I didn’t have a blueprint?

The last story I worked on for last year’s NaNoWriMo was filled with plenty of notes about the futuristic aesthetic, aspects of society, character quirks, et cetera, but I wasn’t quite sure how I’d connect everything. I wanted to not only create dialogue and multi-dimensional personalities for them but make any conversation sound natural. I wanted to make sure I didn’t just make the “cool” technology the characters were using complicated just for the fun of it. I wanted it to all make sense… and it will, eventually!