50,000 Words + 30 Days = NaNoWriMo

I was introduced to National Novel Writing Month while I was in college. When I heard about it, I’d wondered how I’d missed this challenge.

In case you are not familiar with the concept of NaNoWriMo, it is a month long writing challenge issued to individuals to write a novel in 30 days - 50,000 words in November. 

To me, it’s an opportunity to encourage writers to stretch themselves, establish writing routines in ways they may not have previously thought possible, and help them connect with other writers.

Over the years, I’ve participated several times with varying results. Some years I started strong at the beginning of the month and slowed to the end. Others I didn’t put the effort in that I’d planned and the project went by the wayside. And then there were years where I met and exceeded my goals. One year, I actually did Double NaNo - 100,000 words.

I’ve learned a lot during my time as a NaNo writer. One tip I received has helped me in my writing, not only during this challenge, but throughout the year: 

It’s important to track your progress. Create a tracker with your daily or writing session goals - both short and long term. This is important to help keep yourself accountable to your writing time, like clocking in and out of work. It can also help you see your successes in a different way. I have found that this helps to keep me motivated and on the right path (or at least most of the time). 

There are a lot of tracker templates out there as each writer has a different way they go about this. I’ve created my own version that helps me and my writing style. Here is a link to the tracker that I created for my 2020 NaNo goals. I use an adapted version of this throughout the year.

If you would like other tips to help you through your writing journey, you can follow me on Twitter where I provide tidbits of advice and motivation that I’ve learned along my own writing journey.