writercises | FILL: Nanowrimo? Little tiny wrimos? What? (Reply)

No, no, no. Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month. November! Just around the weekend.

So, for those heading into NaNoWriMo, let's consider. 50,000 words in November? That's 1,666 a day or do 2,000 a day to build up a backlog. Of course, you could look at it as 12,500 words per week for the next four weeks. Or maybe tackle it as four weeks of five weekdays at 2,000 words per day, with just 2,500 to do over the weekend? Or if your weekdays are busy, try doing just 1,000 each weekday, and then polish off 7,500 over the weekend. Maybe 4,000 a day? Or 5,000 Saturday and 2,500 on Sunday?

Looking at the calendar, this is a good November. It has five weekends! So you can get a jump on things, starting with the first weekend. That will help when someone drags you out for turkey and stuffing and all that. Remember, Thanksgiving! So put some slack in the schedule and build up a reserve early.

The main point, of course, is to sit down and grind out those words. Hum-I think I saw a quote that fits here.

Yep. From Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg, under First Thoughts. She's talking about writing practice, and suggests timed exercise. And for that time, you should:

1. Keep your hand moving. Don't pause to reread
2. Don't cross out. Don't edit as you write
3. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar.
4. Lose control.
5. Don't think. Don't get logical.
6. Go for the jugular. If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it.

Forward momentum. Keep writing. Next month or next year you can come back and clean it up, go back and do the revisions, make all the changes you want. But for one month, just let the words flow.

And you may be surprised at what comes out.

So what'll it be? 2,000 words a day? You can do it.

tink
(318 words? 1,700 more to go...)
Keep those words a'rolling, rawhide?