The first year I tried NaNoWriMo, I wrote about 700 words and then stopped completely. (I still count that as a year that I tried though—I'm masochistic like that!) But I think one of the reasons that year failed so spectacularly was that I had no idea how many words per day 50,000 words worked out to be. I could've picked up a calculator, but the thought to do so just didn't occur to me.
The following year, I'd bought Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! which had a handy-dandy little chart breaking down each day's writing requirement: day 1, 1667, day 2, 3334, day 3, 5001, and so on and so on. (This was in the days before all the fancy metrics on the NaNoWriMo site itself).
And I finished.
Turns out, having the daily goal right there was part of the key.
Many authors swear by writing a set number of words each day. In On Writing, Stephen King recommends 1,000 words. Nora Roberts is said to sit at her desk and write 9-5, 50 weeks a year just like any other working stiff. One of the first novel writing books I ever read, How to Write & Sell Your First Novel recommended 750 words per day.
But whatever the quota is, there seems to be little doubt that the quota helps. Gives you something to keep track of, and keeps you moving forward as you see yourself inching toward you goal.
Right now, I'm using 750words.com to help me reach my 750-words a day quota. Do you have a daily (or weekly) writing quota? How do you track it? Do you find it helpful?
This month I'm participating in the A-Z blog challenge. My theme is "writer hacks," or 26 shortcuts you can do as a writer to get the most out of writing and the journey toward and through publication. Find out more about it at a-to-zchallenge.com, and hop around to read the other cool blogs that are part of the challenge!
Quotas are completely the key! I know it emphasizes quantity not quality, but I noticed that the rare times I set high quotas and make them, the quality gets better the more words I produce on a given day. Like cleaning dross from the pipes. I'm doing camp nanowrimo this month and completely not making my daily quotas, but then the next day comes and it's a nice clean slate.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. I'm always surprised by how good the writing is that I produce. I'm a reviser by nature; a quota helps me keep my eye on the prize instead of obsessing over every last word.
DeleteQuotas are helpful. But getting started and not giving up are most important.
ReplyDeleteIt's the getting started part that is hard. Now, if only there were a good hack for that besides just "ritual." :)
DeleteI don't use quotas. I end up writing to get the word count instead of producing good material. I focus more on getting a scene done, or fixing a particular problem, or even writing for a specific time.
ReplyDeleteBTW, one thing that may help with future NANOs is doing some advanced training. Try writing a blog a day for a week or ten days to get used to writing on demand.
The daily writing ritual is definitely helpful! I've done pretty okay with NaNo—6 wins out of 9 attempts, and 1 CampNaNo win.
DeleteI think that a "quota" can also be interpreted to be a specific goal like a scene or a problem or an amount of time, and I totally use all those things, too. Time I've found to be elusive, though, because I tend to count it as "time spent writing" even if I just angsted over the scene and didn't do anything active to try to fix my problem. :)