Writing Tips by Rachelle
National Novel Writing Month takes place each year in November. Writers from all over the planet set a goal to write like crazy. In order to “win” Nano, you need to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
To give you an idea of what that means, a typical novel is around 80,000-100,000 words. My first novel, WRONG NUMBER
Remember last week when I told you that I participated in NaNo for the first time? You can see my post HERE. I won–something that completely amazed me because my baby was only two weeks old when NaNo started on the first of November.
The next year, my hope was that I wouldn’t have 50K words left on my new novel. I challenged myself to a personal NaNoWriMo during the month of October and I hit 33,000 words. It was pretty exciting to see those words pile up. I’m kind of competitive–even with myself–so I have an Excel document in which I track the amount of words I write each day.
There were nights back then when I was so tired and I really wanted to veg, but then I’d look at my word count which I’d worked at in snatches all day between changing diapers, helping with homework, helping my girls practice piano, making dinner–you get the idea. Often I would think, I’m only 800 words away from hitting 2,000, which was my daily goal. Sometimes I would make it and other times I wouldn’t. I don’t write on Sundays, so that means I had to up my daily word count goal to reach the monthly goal. But every day I was more motivated to write because I was pushing toward that goal.
If you’re a writer, I encourage you to sign up for NaNo and make a goal.
If you’re not a writer, focus on what you do want to accomplish in another area of your life, make a goal, and make it happen.
What do you want to achieve?
Visit Rachelle’s For Writers Page to find more resources HERE
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