I finished NaNoWriMo 2022 with a total of 55,380 words. I did complete a novella and got close to finishing a novel I have been working on for two years. I am happy about the result, but I will definitely change things next year.
Things that worked.
Using the dictation features of Office and AI grammar checking really helped me with daily word counts. I mentioned these in some other posts.
Regular exercise. I tried to get in at least 3 yoga sessions a week and a long walk on days I didn’t do yoga. This helps. If you can’t sleep properly, you will have trouble writing.
Things to change
Work on one project only. The novella piece could not have come together better but switching between two projects was confusing and tiring. I will do one thing next time, even if I don’t get to 50k words.
Plan ahead. I should have spent more time preparing an outline, this includes making notes on plot, character sketches, and world building. I did a good job of this for my novella, and I saw a real benefit. My novel outline was not so good. As a result, I have had trouble making my word count on that project.
File Management, this is more than just making backups. This is related to planning. I have tried working with one big file and that is cumbersome. Especially for search and replace and grammar checking. Breaking a novel into chapters is a good solution but have a naming convention to keep track of the chapters. (I did but did not stick to it.)
Get a bigger display. My eyes are not what they used to be, but even if I had owl vision a bigger display really helps. I have the grammarly, styles, dictation widget, the find widget open all the time. My laptop has a 15-inch display, but even with that all those toolbars and widgets crowd the screen. I took advantage of Black Friday and sprung for a 32-inch gaming display. Word looks amazing now.
Most important thing to remember
NaNoWriMo is really about producing a first draft, not a masterpiece. You can always fix it later, or just be satisfied that you wrote a book in a month.
Is my NaNoWriMo novel really that bad?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/nov/30/could-my-book-be-as-bad-as-i-imagined-my-verdict-on-the-novel-i-wrote-in-a-month
How to prep for NaNoWriMo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWUa7xKLo7w&t=18s