50,000 words in 30 days can look intimidating. Broken up, it’s 1,667 words per day, which can still look scary, but is more manageable to think about. (You’ll get used to measuring things by wordcount instead of page count soon enough, rest assured.)
But personally? And possibly my biggest piece of NaNo advice outside of JUST DO IT—write two thousand words a day. 2k a day. Just a few hundred more words per day than the base goal, a few paragraphs, surely. You could do that!
My suggestion for that is twofold. First, maybe most important: it’s way easier math. It may be a stereotype that writers don’t like math, but hey, I find that to be true. And the less brainpower you use trying to remember whatever weird wordcount goal for the day is that day, the more brainpower you can use for writing.
Unless you use one of those super cool wordcount calendars! I’ve used them as desktop wallpapers and I think printed them out before, but it can get annoying to track one down for the proper year with the fact that years past are still available online and confuse google.
You could also get a November calendar and write in the wordcount goals yourself, or get a fully blank month calendar and write dates and wordcount goals. If you’re a calendar person, I recommend it. I’ve also done that in daily agenda/planners, but there’s nothing like seeing the month laid out at a glance for recognizing your progress.
Anyway, the second reason I recommend writing 2k words a day: especially if you’re an American, you are going to want that buffer it gives you toward the end of the month. You know, because Thanksgiving.
Building a buffer is vital. You probably aren’t going to hit your wordcount goal every day, whether from lack of inspiration, time, motivation, or something else. Life still happens during NaNo. A buffer is both peace of mind and a cushion for easier catch up. (Catching up is brutal if you fall too far behind. 0/10, do not recommend.)
For Americans, Thanksgiving weekend is toward the end of the month. It’s always on a Thursday, but that Friday is Black Friday, and that weekend has more sales and deals and things to do. I won’t talk about the capitalistic hedonism of Black Friday/the rest of the week’s themed sales, but even if you don’t partake in them, it is still Thanksgiving weekend.
This means a full four-day weekend (or longer!) of cooking, friend and family visits, eating, maybe football, socializing, and more. It is a big time commitment, regardless of the scale of your plans. Many places of employment close for the long weekend; retail and service industry workers are only just entering hell.
If you can write during that weekend, great! Writing makes an excellent getaway from the chaos of family visits. It’s quiet, solitary, and literal escapism. And you can even tell your family that you have writing obligations to fulfill! Great excuse.
But do not count on it. Consider the weekend a loss. That’s what the buffer is for. With 2k a day, you can easily lose those 4 days (technically, you can lose 5 days, but let’s not cut it any closer than we must) and finish by month’s end. If you plan for it on November 1st, you’ll be fine November 25th.
Also, personally speaking, Pokémon always releases a new game in November. If not them, then Assassin’s Creed, or Persona. Why can’t I get a break? We all know I’m terrible with resisting temptation. (Case in point: I spent eight days playing AC Valhalla last year. Granted, I was terrifically ahead in NaNo, which is why I afforded myself the luxury.) Thankfully, this year’s Pokémon game is a remake, but it’s also the Sinnoh remake, so I need to invest heartily into it for fandom brand reasons.
Sales and deals happen, both for Black Friday and the buildup to Christmas. If there is a new game, movie, book, or something coming out that you’ve been looking forward to, try to power ahead pre-release as much as possible. You’ll thank yourself in the future when you have some guilt-free time to relax with your new distraction.
My other tips for the month definitely include: get a word processor you like. As mentioned in last week’s post about NaNoWriMo specials, several word processors go on sale, both for the duration of November and percent-off sales for beyond. Dabble, the program I use, was free for the 30 days of November, then had 50% off afterward for winners. (20% for participants.) Scrivener always has a 30 day free trial, and better yet, those don’t even have to be consecutive days, so if you take a day off, it won’t count against you. Win for December 1st!
There are plenty of free options, too. Microsoft Word comes with many computers and is standard for a reason. Libre Office is actually free and I’ve used it for many, many years. Google Docs is free with a Google account and has the major perk of being accessible anywhere; web-based word processors have my heart, since I use many different computers to write, and I’m never again returning to the dark time of emailing files to myself repeatedly.
Find out how you like to write, and if it’s a new program, familiarize yourself with it the week before (or half a month before, starting now). You don’t want to be confused or surprised on November 10th.
If you go the extra mile, here are some bonus tips that you could do:
-outline your novel (arguably “starting” it, which isn’t 100% purist, but I personally only count narrative words on a page)
-gather a pile of character names to draw from later (I technically have one, lying around somewhere, mostly unused)
-create a soundtrack/playlist (VITAL imo)
-create character mood boards (you can find blank templates online, but I know places like canva provide some templates too)
-research character face claims (think of what actors you’d want to play your characters, it’s highly motivating)
-go ham on picrews for character designs (my preferred method)
-join writer groups (NaNo forums, discord servers, slack groups, and more!)
-get accountabilibuddies (accountability buddies, people you go through NaNo hell with together and cheer each other on)
-create a pillow fort you can crawl into and scream in for later in the month
-ask friends/family/strangers on the street to bribe you should you win (that said, I’m still waiting on several of my prizes from last year)
