#NaNoWriMo Prep: Set Your Word Count Goal and Writing Schedule | #amwriting #NaNo2018

We are one week away from the start of National Novel Writing Month.

Do you feel ready to start?

Because writing a first draft in thirty days is not a normal level of writing that any of us do on a regular basis, it’s important to start thinking now about how you’re going to schedule time to write every day.

Setting Word-Count Goals
From the NaNoWriMo website:

Why 50,000 words? And how do you define “novel”?

Our experiences since 1999 show that 50,000 words is a challenging but achievable goal, even for people with full-time jobs and children. This is about the length of The Great Gatsby. We don’t use the word “novella” because it doesn’t seem to impress people the way “novel” does.

We define a novel as “a lengthy work of fiction.” Beyond that, we let you decide whether what you’re writing falls under the heading of “novel.” In short: If you believe you’re writing a novel, we believe you’re writing a novel, too.

The thing about this being a voluntary contest is that you don’t have to commit to 50,000 words if you don’t want to. In order to figure out how long your manuscript needs to be, you need to know what type of manuscript you’re writing:

Novella: 20,000 to 25,000 words

Novelette/Category Romance: 40,000 to 65,000 words

Single Title/Mass Market/Trade Fiction: 75,000–120,000 words

Epic: 125,000+ words

Obviously, depending on what you’re writing, you may or may not be able to write the entire thing in 30 days. Or you might be able to write two novellas or multiple short stories. It really is up to you.

Because I’m trying to relearn the joy of storytelling and writing books, I’m challenging myself but not in a way that should prove to be too stressful.

My goal is to write an average of at least 500 words per day on my story, for a total of 15,000 words for the month. It doesn’t seem like a whole lot—especially given that I’ve just said above that even a novella (novellette) should be at least 20k words. But as someone who’s been creatively stifled and experiences anxiety whenever I think about sitting down to write, I feel like 500 words per day (2 to 3 pages—or less than half the length of one of my average blog posts) is more than enough to be going on with.

To write 50k in 30 days, you need to average 1,667 words per day. Which sounds like a whole lot . . . unless you look at it more like getting in a full day’s worth of calories. In addition to breaking down your full word-count to a daily average, you can break down the words needed per day into smaller chunks to be done at designated times per day. For example, waking up a little early to write 500 words before the day starts. Trying to get in 800 to 1,000 words at lunch, and then finishing up the rest of it in an hour or so in the evening.

Assignment 1: Determine the word-count you’d like to reach at the end of this challenge. Then calculate what you’ll need to average daily to reach your goals.

Set Your Writing Schedule for the Entire Month of November

Don’t take this lightly. If you’re really serious about this, you need to sit down with your calendar (and if you’re scheduling around a spouse/partner and/or kids, then you need to grab every calendar in the house) and really look at what you have coming up November 1–30.

Look at the word-count goals that you set (overall and daily average). Think about how long it takes you to write 1,000 words. Have you ever timed yourself? If you never have and you don’t know how productive you can be in a certain amount of time, then you need to allow more time than you think you’ll need. Don’t short-change yourself.

To paraphrase Master Yoda: Guess not. Know, or know not. There is no guess.

And if you’re working around the schedules of other people in your household, now is a great time to start talking to them about this challenge and about how, in November, you’re going to need their understanding and support as you pour most of your focus and energy into your story. Get them on board. Start planning schedules of who’s responsible for meals and other things you usually take care of now, rather than waiting until November 1 and then announcing that things must change.

For those in the United States, something to keep in mind is that you may struggle the week of November 18–24 to get your writing time scheduled, between cleaning and cooking, Thanksgiving festivities, football games (or Black Friday shopping), travel, etc. So be sure to build in some extra time in the other three weeks of the month to get ahead/catch up with what you may not have time for that week.

Assignment 2: In order to reach your word-count goal for the challenge, set “writing time” appointments for yourself one each day of the month that you know you’ll need to write. If you know—or even just suspect—you’re not going to have time to write on certain days, build in contingency writing-time appointments on other days so you can get your word-count in when you have the time.

If you need more advice, hints, or tips on how to manage your time for a month-long writing marathon, check out this video from NaNoWriMo: