Hillary DePiano
  • Home
  • About
  • Works
    • Performance Inquiries
    • Script Sort! Find stage plays for schools, community theatre and more
  • Blog
  • Writing Workshops
  • Contact
Select Page

Tips for NaNoWriMo Success: Don’t let names slow you down.

by Hillary DePiano | Nov 4, 2011 | NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

Your main character whispered her name to you in a dream. You feel the name of your romantic lead like it came through a direct channel from your muse. You’re just about to write the scene when they go to her workplace when you realize you don’t have a...

Tips for NaNoWriMo Success: Let others’ word counts inspire, not discourage.

by Hillary DePiano | Nov 3, 2011 | NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

You’ve been working hard on your NaNoWriMo novel. You’re feeling pretty proud of your word count. Heh. Look at that loud mouth from the forums, she’s only got 100 words. You showed her. Then you notice that your other friend has double the number of...

Tips for NaNoWriMo Success: Get ahead early. Front load your word count.

by Hillary DePiano | Nov 2, 2011 | NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

The beginning of NaNoWriMo is exciting. You’re full of fire, you love your novel and everything is just so darn fun. You’d be foolish not to take advantage of that and use that spirit to get ahead on your word count early. Life happens. Things come up. You...

Tips for NaNoWriMo Success: Never, ever look back.

by Hillary DePiano | Nov 1, 2011 | NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), Writing Advice and Resources

This is the single most important lesson that NaNoWriMo has to teach you. Learning this has helped me more in my writing than any other class, book or article I have ever read. When writing a first draft of anything, article, novel, short story… Just keep...

NaNoWriMo buddy list: What’s it for? Tips and more.

by Hillary DePiano | Nov 1, 2011 | Living the Writing Life, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

Heh. That title rhymes. NaNoWriMo buddies are a long standing tradition of National Novel Writing Month. Sometimes they take the feature down while relaunching the site but we always get them back before the competition really starts. To add any other NaNoWriMo user...
Next Entries »

About the Author

Hillary DePiano is a playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer who loves writing of all kinds except for writing bios like this.

Get new posts in your email

Upcoming Events

03 Aug
Advanced Self-Publishing

Recent Posts

  • Start reading Make Ready to Write here now!
  • Grab a free copy of Building a Writing Life (and welcome to the new newsletter!)
  • Hands Free Writing with Dictation and Voice-to-Text on May 16, 2026 11 AM (EST) [Zoom Workshop]

Books and Plays by Hillary DePiano

Trending

  • Kanban for writers: organize book releases, revisions & more with project management boards
  • Review: Can 4TheWords, the fantasy game for writers, be used for editing and other off-site writing?
  • Should you write by hand? Handwriting pros and cons

Join My Newsletter

Be the first to know about world premiere opportunities, new releases, upcoming workshops and special offers!

  • X
  • Instagram
  • RSS
Copyright © Hillary DePiano 2026