One of the joys of NaNo: Daily Word Count Goals
December 4th 2007 06:20
NaNoWriMo has one thing about it that just happens to be advice from some of the best writers in my opinion-such as Stephen King. This one thing is that it makes you write, EVERY DAY, or suffer the consequences-a longer catch up day or a severe lack of winning.
This is advice given to writers by many, many, many serious writers. I can't help but echo it to some extent. I mean, as a drudge worker, you show up for work every day, do you not? Well, unless you're sick or on vacation. As a writer, you should love your job, and even when it feels like grunt work, be willing to stick with it. You should show up for work every day unless you're really sick or on vacation-but don't allow yourself any more vacation time (I'd say it should be more like half the vacation time) than a grunt worker would have.
You've gotta build yourself a good number of stories, articles, prompts, things you can use for the times when everything is running dry. You need to be able to have backup stories just in case-because as a writer, productivity is the most important thing, not clocked hours. In fact, as a writer, you need to produce regularly. Preferably every day.
When you're just starting out, particularly when you're young, maybe the best goal you can make for yourself every day is between five hundred and one thousand words. Sure, some days you'll miss the mark and have no willpower to try to continue, but some days you'll be able to write more. If you're an overachiever, you might start with 1500. It depends on what your goals are, in the long run.
You can set goals by other things than word count, like hours or pages. I'll get to those in a bit, theoretically. But the biggest recommendation, or at least the most common one I've heard, is to set yourself a word count goal for every day-and if you don't make it, don't worry too much, and if you hit it and you're still inspired, keep going.
One thing to remember is never to stop when you're inspired. To be a successful writer you need to work at it and be productive. You need to write regularly-every day, or every other day. Something like that.
So, what are you waiting for? Go write something!
This is advice given to writers by many, many, many serious writers. I can't help but echo it to some extent. I mean, as a drudge worker, you show up for work every day, do you not? Well, unless you're sick or on vacation. As a writer, you should love your job, and even when it feels like grunt work, be willing to stick with it. You should show up for work every day unless you're really sick or on vacation-but don't allow yourself any more vacation time (I'd say it should be more like half the vacation time) than a grunt worker would have.
You've gotta build yourself a good number of stories, articles, prompts, things you can use for the times when everything is running dry. You need to be able to have backup stories just in case-because as a writer, productivity is the most important thing, not clocked hours. In fact, as a writer, you need to produce regularly. Preferably every day.
When you're just starting out, particularly when you're young, maybe the best goal you can make for yourself every day is between five hundred and one thousand words. Sure, some days you'll miss the mark and have no willpower to try to continue, but some days you'll be able to write more. If you're an overachiever, you might start with 1500. It depends on what your goals are, in the long run.
You can set goals by other things than word count, like hours or pages. I'll get to those in a bit, theoretically. But the biggest recommendation, or at least the most common one I've heard, is to set yourself a word count goal for every day-and if you don't make it, don't worry too much, and if you hit it and you're still inspired, keep going.
One thing to remember is never to stop when you're inspired. To be a successful writer you need to work at it and be productive. You need to write regularly-every day, or every other day. Something like that.
So, what are you waiting for? Go write something!
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