Crazy-fast-novelling wisdom

Things I've learned from previous and current NaNovels:
1. Light is better than dramatic when you want to write fast.

2. Drama is good for word count, but don't depend on it too often.

3. Good Nano novel does not = good real novel. Don't fight your inner editor, but work with him/her.

4. Good real novel does not = good Nano novel. Waiting is the worst thing that can happen in your NaNovel.

5. Condense, don't stretch. This one is very me-specific, as I have a tendency to describe all the wandering around between exciting things happening, instead of writing "three days later". Does that make a nice, short, 50k novel? Nope.

6. Don't be afraid to do something fun even when you're writing a serious novel. Example: this year I'm writing an apocalyptic novel about miner/spelunker/treasure-hunter people, and about how the main character tries to stop a revolution. I switched perspectives to someone on the surface a few days before the craziness starts, and somehow having my character running around her boarding school trying to sneak after some teenagers going on a road trip is just as fun as end-of-the-world stuff. And I still have to use the line "It's the llama apocalypse! I knew it!" That should be fun.

7. If you have a nicely planned-out but light novel that you're losing interest in, and suddenly come up with a good idea to rewrite your Boulderdash fan-fiction from when you were ten but set it on a colony planet and include an apocalypse, go ahead.
Don't worry, story-about-a-forming-collective-mind, I will write you too after November.

That's all I can think of for now. I think the best thing about Nano for me is that it keeps me writing, and I find out a LOT about how I work under pressure. Since I might become an author, this is useful. 2010 will be my third year, and hopefully my most successful! I will finish Tunnel's End around 50k! I WILL!