Inspiration

By talking to other people crazy enough to attempt to write 50,000 words in thirty days
By being inspired by other great works of art whether they be words or pictures
By remembering why you started writing in the first place and why you love it
By breaking the big goal of 50,000 words into little goals whatever they may be in my case it is to write everyday for thirty days
Have fun and good luck!

What a great answer!

I agree about little goals. Baby steps.

If I ever sat down and said, "I'm going to write a novel now" I'd probably freeze up and not do anything.

So I tell myself "Okay Self (Yes, I do address myself directly), today I'd like you to just write one page. That's all I'm asking."

But then it seems silly to stop after only one page, so I think I'll just write a little more.

Then the pages start looking like something and I'm getting a little comfortable and don't really feel like getting up, so I think I'll just sit here for a while.

Well, sitting in front of a computer without writing feels really silly, so I end up writing a little more.

You see how this goes... I end up tricking myself into writing a lot of pages.

Reverse psychology ... and I play it on myself.

Keep writing!

Like people above have said, I break it down. A lot of it is finding little tricks that work for a while, like a drug. A little of one drug might kill, say, a third of an infection. Well, then it builds up tolerance to it, and it does more harm than good. That's how I am. Listening to music for inspiration might work for a day, or a week, or maybe even just for a few hours. But then, I get used to it, and it just distracts me. Well, then, I do something else.

A great big old motivator, though, is my absolute love of writing. I think of how far I am behind, or how many words I need to do, and it catches me up, and I find myself, after every third or fourth paragraph, clicking the word count button. At times like those, I remind myself that it's not for the word count, it's not for the friends. Even though these things are all both very supportive, and wonderful goals in themselves, the one, main, central thing that NaNoWriMo is about is the joy of writing. Word counts, word wars, certificates, regions, winners. These things are all fine and dandy, but if you get too caught up, you forget that they were made and/or brought together to celebrate the sheer joy that (I think the original NaNo had twenty-seven?) twenty-seven(?) people had for writing. =D When I remember that, it makes all the pains of NaNo seem oh-so easy peasy.

But, honestly, even that isn't the main reason i keep writing. The main inspirational, motivational object/force for me is my NaNo mentor. =D It really does help to have someone who knows what NaNo is about, and who's done it (and won it) before to talk to, to inspire you, and to cry to if you fall short; or to shape you up if you need it.

=D Basically, NaNo is possible mainly (and only) because we want to do it.

Edit: I forgot to mention one of the most useful (and sort of destructive, in a way) tips to maximizing writing before you A) quit for the day or, B) fall asleep. "I can hit (about 100 more) words!" ...then, "Oh, I'm already fifty words in, I'll go that extra 200." Which morphs into... "Ewahhhh... @.@ I wrote 1000 words more than I planned... *snooze*" =D It works, because I did get an extra 1000 in last night before I went to sleep... and I couldn't focus after that, or I would have gone on. =D

Being a massive procrastinator, I get a lot of writhing done on a tape recorder. When I get a side full, I type it in. It seems easier to 'write' two or three sentences when they pop into my head than to sit down and make myself type for an hour.

I also drop in on the boards. It is encouraging to realize there are many other NaNos out there in the same word crunch I am. Baton Rouge has both a daily challenge and a weekly challenge. I sometimes get a paragraph or two out of their ideas.

I sometimes put in junk I have to delete before taking my word count. Several times I've typed, "I have no clue what to write right now." Usually by the time I've typed that sentence two or three times, I have something else to replace it.

Erm... am I the only one that promises myself a beer and potato chip break if I get to the next thousand? The only problem is that by the third thousand I'm giggling and doing stuff to my characters that I immensely regret the next morning....