The NaNoWriMo Halfway Mark

At the end of yesterday, my novel contained just over 26,100 words. Yesterday being the 15th, and therefore exactly halfway through November, I felt very pleased with myself for being 1100 words ahead. (Today ... not so much.)

Lessons drawn from sixteen days' experience as a high-speed novelist:

• Try, if at all possible, to save the creepy parts of your novel to be written in the daylight and with other people around.
• Treats are a great motivator. One night at least, I have made my word count goal only by bribing myself with a bag of GORP with M&Ms.
• Not sure which NaNo staffperson first said it, but they were right: It's very important to tell everyone you know that you're taking part in NaNoWriMo. Knowing that your entire acquaintance will hear about it if you succeed or fail is a powerful motivator.
• Whenever possible, it helps to end a day's writing time in a place that makes going on sound fun.
• Procrastination opportunities abound and must be battled with every available force. Most of the time.
• Got a 12-hour plane ride? Use it. Who really wants to watch in-flight movies anyway?
• Make yourself a banner or cover art, even if you don't share it on your profile. I made myself a banner using some stock photos I found online, and I look at it when I want a kick of motivation.
• Stocking up on coffee is apparently traditional WriMo technique, but overdoing it is counterproductive: coffee jitters make typing and thinking unnecessarily difficult.
• The forums are a lot of extremely distracting fun, when read wisely.