By Annette Cole
Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine
Most people turn over a
new leaf with the ringing in of New Years Day and set new goals. However, when
leaves begin to turn glorious colors and subsequently fall to the ground, I get
geared up for a recommitment to daily writing.
For me, it helps to set new daily writing goals before the busy holiday season begins. It also helps give me a kick start towards the National Novel Writing Month Challenge. What is the challenge?
Write at least 50,000 words in a month. Yes, it's doable. You will not go crazy, you just have to get the right mind set. Remember the first day of any college class? The professor gives out a syllabus listing various papers' due dates. Those dates always seem far away but quickly appear. The lessons I learned in my college years was to start planning for writing assignments in my career by daily writing.
To successfully write 50,000 words in a month, you have to STOP the human nature of self editing. Silence that inner editor. That includes all temptations to edit. The purpose of NaNo Writing is to just get as many words on paper as possible. If you're a "seat of the pants" type writer, you will probably have an easier time in just free flow writing. However, if you're a "plotter-outliner" you can still be successful by doing a little bit of prep work before November 1st, start date of the challenge. Just jot out a short outline and then write.
Let me break it down for you. If you have a website and do a daily blog post of 500 words per post, you only need to write roughly 1200 more for a total of 1700 a day to easily meet your NaNoWriMo goal or over 50,000. Your goal isn’t to end the month with a completely polished novel, but to write each and every day. Successful authors always advise to become a writer you must write.
For me, it helps to set new daily writing goals before the busy holiday season begins. It also helps give me a kick start towards the National Novel Writing Month Challenge. What is the challenge?
Write at least 50,000 words in a month. Yes, it's doable. You will not go crazy, you just have to get the right mind set. Remember the first day of any college class? The professor gives out a syllabus listing various papers' due dates. Those dates always seem far away but quickly appear. The lessons I learned in my college years was to start planning for writing assignments in my career by daily writing.
To successfully write 50,000 words in a month, you have to STOP the human nature of self editing. Silence that inner editor. That includes all temptations to edit. The purpose of NaNo Writing is to just get as many words on paper as possible. If you're a "seat of the pants" type writer, you will probably have an easier time in just free flow writing. However, if you're a "plotter-outliner" you can still be successful by doing a little bit of prep work before November 1st, start date of the challenge. Just jot out a short outline and then write.
Let me break it down for you. If you have a website and do a daily blog post of 500 words per post, you only need to write roughly 1200 more for a total of 1700 a day to easily meet your NaNoWriMo goal or over 50,000. Your goal isn’t to end the month with a completely polished novel, but to write each and every day. Successful authors always advise to become a writer you must write.
Are you curious of
any best-sellers that started as a National Novel Writing Month projects? The
following are just some of the success stories that came from the challenge;
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern,
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, Wool by Hugh Howey, The Darwin Elevator by Jason M.
Hough, Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress by Marissa Meyer, Persistence of Memory by Amelia
Atwater-Rhodes, BreakupBabe by Rebecca Agiewich, Take the Reins by Jessica
Burkhart, The Movie by Bosley Gravel, Livvie Owen Lived Here by Sarah Dooley,Losing Faith by Denise Jaden, The Compound by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen, The Hungry Season by T. Greenwood, Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen by Donna Gephart, and
The God Patent by Ransom Stephens.
So what do you have to lose? Nothing but a best-seller, if you don't even try the challenge.
Join with me writers and fall into writing.
So what do you have to lose? Nothing but a best-seller, if you don't even try the challenge.
Join with me writers and fall into writing.
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