My Camp #NaNoWriMo Goal: 150k Words #My150NaNo

If you’re unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) here’s the rundown… Writers join together for the challenge of writing a novel in a month. It’s been the starting point for a lot of authors.

The main NaNoWriMo is in November, but there are two “camps” in April and July. They are a bit more flexible. Writers can choose any writing goal they want, and they can work on anything. It doesn’t have to be a novel. I’ve seen people write poetry collections and novellas.

There’s still time to join:

I recently become a full-time author, so I decided to set a big goal for NaNo this year. I thought about 100k, but considering I’ve written 90k this month, that isn’t a big stretch from what I’m already doing.

So, I decided to try to write 150,000 first-draft words next month. AND I’m going to blog about it!

Bear in mind that I:

• Homeschool my two kids
• Don’t write on Saturdays
• I write about half as much on Sundays

Crazy?

Probably. Maybe. Not really. Crazy is that guy who does all 50k of NaNoWriMo in one day.

I’m being realistic given my current writing performance. (This morning I wrote 4k in 2 hours, 37 minutes.)

It’s also not that crazy when you consider that I’ve written 70k novels in a month when I had a day job and was homeschooling my kids.

WHY write so much?

I love a good challenge and this will definitely push my limits. I’ve had other writers ask me a lot of questions about my process. This will be a fun way for them to peek at my process.

Will writing so much make the quality go down?

Not at all. I’ve found that writing is like any other muscle – the more you work it, the stronger it becomes. The more I write, the higher the quality.

I started writing my first novel in April of 2012 (no, it wasn’t for NaNoWriMo) and ever since then, I’ve learned to write a lot faster, and the quality of what I write is leaps and bounds higher than three years ago.

It’s only a myth that an author should take a year to write a novel. The fact is that traditional publishing has held back many writers productivity. Some traditional authors who want to write more often use pen names. (But that’s a whole other blog post, so we’re going to move on now.)

How do I plan to accomplish 150k words in one month?

In order to stay on track, my goal is to write:

• Just over 6k M-F
• 3k on Sundays
• Use Saturdays as a last resort

What will my blog posts be like?

I’ll share my word counts and anything I learned that day. I’ve only hit 6k in a day about three times, so twenty-two days is going to be a trifle challenging. Likely, I’ll share some screenshots. I might do some videos if I’m burned out with typing.

Whatever lessons I learn, I’ll share on the blog. I’m bound to learn a few things along the way! Pushing my limits tends to teach a lesson or two.

What is my writing process?

I’m a natural-born pantser – meaning that I tend toward writing by the seat of my pants. I do outline, and I’ve found basic outlining necessary to increase my word count.

This time around, I’m going to attempt to use Libbie Hawker’s outlining method. I’m about halfway through the book, and it’s awesome! (And I’m not just saying that because I was lucky enough to meet her last year, either.) Her method gives enough wiggle room to keep pansters happy.

These three writing productivity books will be on my reading list for April:

 

How can you follow my 150k in one month journey?

You can bookmark my blog or follow the hashtag #My150NaNo.

Got other questions? Post them in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!

Top Image Credit: http://depositphotos.com/portfolio-1518767.html