FIRE

After you’ve chosen your time limit, set a timer.

As soon as you are ready to write, click on the cut below — no peeking before. None. Seriously, don’t even think about it. You will see two pictures, pick one to write about.

Give yourself a couple seconds. Seriously, seconds, not minutes. Give yourself a couple seconds to look at it and think about the story you want to tell, then turn your timer on and go.

Start writing and don’t stop until you reach the end of the story or your timer goes off.

Did you tell a whole story?

Did you make it to the end before the buzzer?

If not, don’t worry, you will do better next time. These are a great way to warm up for NaNoWriMo because if you set yourself a time limit you won’t have time to listen to your editor if you want to get the story done, which is what NaNo is all about, isn’t it? It’s also a great way to teach yourself to just write. To get the first draft done and onto ‘paper’ so later you can go about making it better.

Don’t revise your story. Put it away for a few weeks then, when you’ve put some distance between it and yourself you can go back to it and polish it up. For now though, it’s all about just getting the first draft done (and if you’re into NaNoWriMo, quantiy over quality).

Images courtesy of IStockPhoto.com

Set a timer (or use Write or Die) and then write 500 words of a story set in one of these images:

Images courtesy of Dreamstime (where I have my stock image portfolio).

Not only does this exercise give you an estimate of how quickly you can write 500 words (which you can obviously use to calculate about how long it will take you to write your 1,667 daily word goal) but it also gives you some practice just writing without caring if it’s good. Do you hear that? Write 500 words of utter crap set in one of these pictures. Not something good, this is NaNo, quantity over quality remember. You’ll make it good when you revise, for now, just get it written.

After you’ve chosen your time limit, set a timer.

As soon as you are ready to write, click on the cut below — no peeking before. None. Seriously, don’t even think about it or your Inner Editor will win. You will see two pictures, each one of a different character. Pick one to write about.

Give yourself a couple seconds. Seriously, seconds, not minutes. Give yourself a couple seconds to look at it and think about the story you want to tell with that character in it, then turn your timer on and go.

Start writing and don’t stop until you reach the end of the story or your timer goes off.

Did you tell a whole story?

Did you make it to the end before the buzzer?

If not, don’t worry, you will do better next time. These are a great way to warm up for NaNoWriMo because if you set yourself a time limit you won’t have time to listen to your editor if you want to get the story done, which is what NaNo is all about, isn’t it?

Don’t revise your story. Put it away for a few weeks then, when you’ve put some distance between it and yourself you can go back to it and polish it up. For now though, it’s all about beating your Inner Editor — and quantity over quality.

Both photos are courtesy of IStockPhoto.com

After you’ve set your time, set a timer.

As soon as you are ready to write, click on the cut below — no peeking before. None. Seriously, don’t even think about it or your Inner Editor will win. You will see two pictures. Pick one to write about. Give yourself a couple seconds. Seriously, seconds, not minutes. Give yourself a couple seconds to look at it and think about the story you want to tell inspired by it, then turn your timer on and go.

Start writing and don’t stop until you reach the end of the story or your timer goes off. Did you tell a whole story? Did you make it to the end before the buzzer? If not, don’t worry, we’ll do a few more of these before November to get better at the speed-writing thing. The thing is, if you set yourself a time limit you won’t have time to listen to your editor if you want to get the story done, which is what NaNo is all about, isn’t it?

Don’t revise your story. Put it away for a few weeks then, when you’ve put some distance between it and yourself you can go back to it and polish it up. For now though, it’s all about beating your Inner Editor — and quantity over quality.

Photo courtesy of Istockphoto.com

Photo courtesy of Rhonda Parrish (that’s me!)

After you’ve set your time, set a timer.

As soon as you are ready to write, click on the cut below — no peeking before. None. Seriously, don’t even think about it or your Inner Editor will win. You will see two pictures. Pick one to write about. Give yourself a couple seconds. Seriously, seconds, not minutes. Give yourself a couple seconds to look at it and think about the story you want to tell inspired by it, then turn your timer on and go.

Start writing and don’t stop until you reach the end of the story or your timer goes off. Did you tell a whole story? Did you make it to the end before the buzzer? If not, don’t worry, we’ll do a few more of these before November to get better at the speed-writing thing. The thing is, if you set yourself a time limit you won’t have time to listen to your editor if you want to get the story done, which is what NaNo is all about, isn’t it?

Don’t revise your story. Put it away for a few weeks then, when you’ve put some distance between it and yourself you can go back to it and polish it up. For now though, it’s all about beating your Inner Editor — and quantity over quality.

Photo taken by Rhonda Parrish

Photo courtesy of iStockPhoto.com

After you’ve set your time, set a timer.

As soon as you are ready to write, click on the cut below — no peeking before. None. Seriously, don’t even think about it or your Inner Editor will win. You will see two pictures. Pick one to write about. Give yourself a couple seconds. Seriously, seconds, not minutes. Give yourself a couple seconds to look at it and think about the story you want to tell inspired by it, then turn your timer on and go.

Start writing and don’t stop until you reach the end of the story or your timer goes off. Did you tell a whole story? Did you make it to the end before the buzzer? If not, don’t worry, we’ll do a few more of these before November to get better at the speed-writing thing. The thing is, if you set yourself a time limit you won’t have time to listen to your editor if you want to get the story done, which is what NaNo is all about, isn’t it?

Don’t revise your story. Put it away for a few weeks then, when you’ve put some distance between it and yourself you can go back to it and polish it up. For now though, it’s all about beating your Inner Editor — and quantity over quality.

Image courtesy of IStockPhoto.com

Photo courtesy of Rhonda Parrish

You can click on either of these images in order to see a larger version of the same picture.