NaNoWriMo by the Numbers

 

Today is day 9, and if you’re keeping up you should have 15,000 words done. I am just scraping past the 10k mark myself, so I have lots of catching up to do. Or do I?

During November, I see lots of posts/tweets/etc., about adding in words written on twitter or Facebook. Some writers put down plenty of words every day, just not necessarily on their NaNo project. That’s normal. Do I count them? Nope, and here’s why.

NaNo isn’t about writing 50,000 words, per se. It’s supposed to be about writing a novel, or a novella or a short story, or whatever your project is. It’s about getting into a habit of writing every day and about understanding the discipline of writing and finishing a piece. Officially “winning” NaNo means hitting that 50k mark, but in reality, a win is accomplishing one of those more substantive goals.

My story might not end up at 50k. It might be shorter, but I won’t know till I get to the end. If I add in all my blog post word count and my FB and twitter activity, I may hit that 50k goal sooner, but it doesn’t get my story written, so I don’t consider that a win.

Everyone has a different goal in mind when they sign up, and these are just my own thoughts on the process. If your goal is to finish a story, then you’re only cheating yourself by not being honest with your word counts. One thing NaNo does effectively is get writers looking at how many words we get down on paper (or pixel) each day, and where those words are going. If I find I write more on FB than on the WIP, I know I need to focus my energies where they will accomplish the most.

And that means getting back to writing the story. As you can see from my calendar widget, I didn’t write every day. I need to work on making more time each day to get some word count in rather than struggling to catch up. That’s my goal for the next week.

How’s your NaNo coming along so far? Do you think you’ll hit the 50k mark? Will you finish a shorter piece?

My NaNo project is tentatively titled “Crush” and is book three in my Delectable series. This one is about a family winemaker trying to keep his winery from the hands of a big beverage conglomerate. If I finish it, it should be coming out next spring from Dreamspinner Press.