The keys to thriving in Week One are straightforward:
1) Surge early. To be on par for the month, you should be writing 1667 words per day. In Week One, try to get 2000 or 2500 a day, and beg, borrow, and steal as much of the first weekend as possible to write. You won’t need to keep up this pace throughout the month, but nothing guarantees a NaNoWriMo victory (and a fun month) like opening up a hefty lead in the first week.
Well, yeah, we can all do the math, but if you’re going to advise to “surge early” it might help to share that at the beginning of the week. I actually didn’t open up a “big lead” last year and I’m just staying on track this year. Granted my schedule is pretty flexible, but it’s not mandatory that you pile up a high count in the first week.
What I have learned from two prior attempts at this is that planning helps. You can’t blame your tools if you fail, but choosing tools or an environment that enable you to focus without distractions. For me, the addition of WriteRoom[links] to my environment has made all the difference. It blocks out everything: no email, no hot-and-heavy election returns, no nuthin’ Just you and the equivalent of a white page.
Picking a tool (ie an editor/wordprocessor) that doesn’t allow you to mess with fonts and styles is a Good Thing. You just get the words out and let the rest take care of itself, preferably in December. It really has made this a lot easier and allowed me to focus on the stuff that matters, ie not how it looks.