Writing Prompts and NaNoWriMo

     Well, well, well. I am rather failing at the 'blogging regularly' thing lately. But guess what month it is! November. Not only November, but National Novel Writing Month. *jazz hands* I am not participating, though I have promised myself that I will someday. For you NaNoers out there, -pause to glare at you all for not working on your novels- this post may be helpful. Hopefully reading this gives you a nice refreshing break so you can get back to the typewriter.

     This year is the closest I've come to actually signing up for NaNoWriMo. I had a story idea outlined at the beginning of October, my school has been much lighter that last year, and I even told a couple friends that I planned on doing it. I changed my mind, though.

     The main reason is that I'm just not a hardcore enough writer. On a good day, I can barely squeeze out 1000 words, much less approximately 2000. I work best in small doses, and that is perfectly fine. Completing NaNo is my heart's desire, though. I want to be able to put on that badge of success at the end of the month. But not this month. In order to be that epic, I have to train.

     I set up my own writing goals, suited to me, right now. I'm trying to get a 50,000 word novel in before December 31, which comes out to writing approximately 833 words a day. It takes my distracted little self up to almost 2 hours (give or take) to get all that done.

     That brings me to my title! Writing prompts. I decided that since I was going to be writing every day, there was no doubt that sometime I'd get stuck and burned out and agonize over every single word. The remedy: I wrote out 61 prompts for myself. They don't affect the plot very much; they're just filler things. So if I feel less than inspired, I go to my tin (it's very adorable, everyone should have one) and pull out a random slip of paper. Yesterday the prompt I got was "sickness" and it actually got me out of my stuck spot. The day before, the prompt helped me add depth to a character.

     I'm challenging you all to create your own writing prompt tin/jar/box/envelope. The plus side of writing your own prompts is that you can write them along the right lines to follow the mood and setting of your novel. It fits while still adding extra excitement to your writing progress. I find that the prompts I stumble across on Pinterest or wherever often require a very specific scene or even an entire story.

     Instructions: (Because what's a blog post without a list?)
-Find a small container. You may want two, so you can store used prompts in the second one. I'm not throwing mine away, but maybe you won't be that attached to yours.
-Get paper. You could start with strips to write each prompt on, or cut them up later.
-Think of/find suitable prompts. They can be as simple as one word. I used colors, random quotes from movies, a requirement for a scene such as "someone has to break something", and moods. I wrote one for every day I planned to write, but you can put however many you wish.
-Cut the prompts out individually and put them in your container.
-Every day, pull one out and use it!

     There you go. I hope you find it helpful! I'd love to hear how NaNo is going for everyone, or if you do try the prompt thing, how that works for you. :) I always love comments.

     P. S. I find I write better if I promise myself chocolate chips afterwards. Just an idea. :P