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Get ahead on Day 1. This will be my 10th NaNo and I have a tradition of doing what I have dubbed "5k first day" every year. One year I didn't start until 2pm and didn't think I'd make it, but I did. The momentum of week one should be used whenever possible. Write every day. If you go one that's one thing, but two or more? That's harder to come back from. Momentum really is key. As Chris Baty says: lower your expectations from best seller to would not make somebody vomit. Don't delete. If you want to redo a scene, you can change text colour to white but don't delete. This doesn't mean don't edit typos - that would drive me insane - but don't delete paragraphs at a time. I agree with @scooterbug8515 that the community aspect in NaNo really is key. It is very different in November than it is during Camp. Make the most of the forums and people cheering you on, whether that be on Twitter or by buddies. People in-person at write-ins are also great. Word crawls are amazing. You get tons of words in, but they tend to be broken into reasonable chunks. I only really got into them the last couple years and they do help. This is also important: no excuses. You can be busy, but that doesn't mean you can't do NaNo if you make time for it. Another Baty-ism: when you have 99 things to do in a day it's easy to make room for one more, but when you have nothing it can be rough to get out of bed and shower by two in the afternoon. I've found this to be true. I've done NaNo in a bunch of situations in my life (my first year was my last year of high school, university, a month of unemployment, and an adult job). Being busy helps. I'm too competitive to let myself fail, especially when competing with people I know who have similar word count goals and speeds. Week 2 blues are a thing. As in, the NaNo book and forums both recognize the week 2 slump after the impressive week 1 go. Push past them. I am a big time NaNo advocate of NaNo. I have nine consecutive wins under my belt, so if anybody wants a "been there, done that" experienced buddy or assurance that they can do it I am happy to keep in contact during November!