Preparing for NaNoWriMo: Schedule Your Writing

The suggested word count to beat NaNoWriMo is 1,667 words per day, every day. November is a short month. If you're in the US, it's even shorter because of things like Thanksgiving and Black Friday. With several days out of commission, you need to be super-focused when it comes to writing and front load your word count.

I understand my methods won't work for everyone in The Lurkdom. I'm lucky in having way too much free time, no children, and a husband that's totally on board with me hiding away with a computer and doing nothing else.

During the first week of NaNoWriMo, I like to exceed the daily word count goals. Since you're in the honeymoon phase of writing anyway, this shouldn't be difficult. Instead of a daily goal of 1,667 words, round it up to 2,000. Even that small of a bump, gives you five free days. The first few days of NaNoWriMo, I aim to double my daily word count so that way I have more days to play with in case there's a day where my word count is nonexistent.

Once your daily word count is determined, set your writing hours and treat this time as you would a day job. Take your computer (or notebook if that's how you roll) and sequester yourself until you meet your word count. If you have a day job, you can get additional words in during lunch and breaks. Last year, I would show up to work two hours early and write out a scene or two.

That's it. As yours truly has all the time in the world this month, I'm going to challenge myself to complete my draft in two weeks.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? How are you going to schedule your writing time?

Also, I was interviewed at The Kelworth Files. You can check it out here.

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Last.fm hit of the day: Better Off Dead by Anathema