I’m taking a break from my Thankful posts (although I still have a shout out below to M.L. Keller) to discuss NaNoWriMo.
Last year — I’m talking school year because my life revolves around my little people — I treated my writing like a job. And rocked it. I finished pantsing my first novel and even got halfway through an edit before I realized how broken the darn story was.
This (school) year? Um, not so much.
I’ve been reading tons. I’ve been walking some. I’ve been procrastinating with Gems of War, Twitter, and Word Chums. And I’ve been reading. Did I mention that?
With all of the buzz around NaNoWriMo, I’ve always thought about doing it, but . . . I haven’t. 50,000 words in 30 days, or 1,667 words a day for one month? Sounds simple. But with Thanksgiving, Veterans Day and life in general, that goal seems more challenging.
If you were to plot out your novel in advance then use a NaNoWriMo Calendar, like M.L. Keller’s, then this looks even easier. Most NaNoWriMo folks suggest writing in 15-minute sprints. A good sprint should yield approx. 500 words. Thus, to achieve the desired 1,667 per day, a writer would need to have four 15-min sprints of 500ish words. Just one hour. One hour a day for 30 days? Not that every day will only be comprised of sprints nor will 1,667 words magically appear in an hour or so, but as long as I’m in the ballpark? Yes, I think I can do that.
Well, I just talked myself into doing NaNoWriMo 2017. Guess I better finish plotting my current novel.
Chris Westwater 