Wasting Time WIth NaNoWriMo 2022
Time flies. The older you are, the faster it flies. We are weeks away from November, and that means NaNoWriMo.
That means I have to put everything else I’m doing on hold—all my coding, writing, and personal projects. I need to focus on writing for thirty days. NaNoWriMo is about writing 50K words during November. Last year, I stretched myself and wrote 80K. This year, I’m going to stretch to breaking and attempt 100K words in 30 days.
The Bad News
I just figured out how much I have to write and for how long in order to hit my 100K world goal during November.
The way this breaks down is as follows (math not double-checked):
- 100K words in 30 days =
- 555 words per hour (assuming writing 6 hours per day) =
- 278 words per sprint. Assuming two 25 minute sprints per hour.
- 280 to be safe…
280 wpm is nothing until you consider the duration involved. 280 words of 2 sprints per hour for 6 hours per day for 30 days.
That’s insane!
I can’t waste time on other things. I won’t have much time to think, to plan, to be creative as I write. I’ll be too busy writing.
I will get stuck if I don’t have my story planned out in advance. I will fail.
And even then, I will have to remember and refer to what I planned.
The Good News
I’ve been planning my next set of books. It’s going to be a four book series and I’ve laid out the first book with all the major scenes documented. I’ll use that as my NaNoWriMo novel. My plan isn’t as complete as I’d like it to be, but I have enough that I feel safe that I have a good chance of hitting my goal.
Side Note
I’ve found an application (Mac/iOS) called Plottr. It’s very easy to use and does what I need the way I need it. I don’t want/need to “waste” time learning a cumbersome or complicated tool. I want results.
You may have noticed I’ve moved toward the planner and away from the pantster approach over the past few books. I’m finding I enjoy knowing where I’m going, but I still hate the time “wasted” planning. With my 100K goal, I can’t afford to “waste” time making stuff up.
I’ll be using my personal writing app, Auteureist and won’t be using fountain pen and paper. I can’t “waste” time writing when I can type faster than I write.
It’s overwhelming .It’s daunting. It’s not the word count. It’s the duration.
This year’s NaNoWriMo is going to feel as overwhelming as my first one.
If you want to follow/add me on the NaNoWriMo site, I’m Archimage. It won’t be a waste.