Time flies when you’re having fun… right?

#1

I’m on my second day of NaNoWriMo and I’m quickly beginning to realise there’s no way I’m reaching my target this month. I’ve spent about eight hours writing and I hate to admit that I only got about 1800 words done. I felt like I was doing ok, only for the hours to slip through my fingers. It’s upsetting honestly. So I’m here to ask what do you all do to increase your work flow and word count for the day? How do you keep yourself motivated even if you don’t reach your goal?
That and I just need to talk to people that understand why I’m frustrated honestly.

Edit: Thank you all for the tips and replies. I feel a lot better about this than before. I’ll try my best to keep going. Best of luck to everyone doing NaNo this year!

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#2

It’s still early in the month. Keep at it!

Chris Fox is an author with a YouTube channel with lots of great videos on increasing writing speed and motivation.

Here’s a good starter video for what you’re working on:

And my apologies in advance if I’ve sent you down a rabbit hole that completely derails future progress this month! He has so many great videos.

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#3

Hey last year I had a total of 1K after the first 2 days and I managed to win, so don’t throw in the towel just yet. Find during which hours you’re more productive and try to focus more then.

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#4

Aha no worries I know how YouTube can be! This is great though, thank you ^^ I’ll do my best to keep at it

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#5

Really? That’s actually comforting to hear ^^ I’m still trying to figure out what hours I do best in, though I did seem to get a bit more done this evening :thinking:

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#6

You’re not spending a lot of time editing and rewriting sentences, are you?
How do the hours pass what do you think takes most of the time?
I think everyone has a different writing process, so maybe you’re still finding what works best for you.
I think the idea behind NaNoWriMo is just to remove the barrier of being too critical with your first draft, and to just get you writing fast. If that’s not a problem you face, then I’m not sure it would teach you much! Also, if you haven’t worked out what story you want to tell, and it’s stressing you out by making you worry about hitting a daily word count, it might not be what you ‘need’.
I guess I’d say, give it a try, but it might not be right for you. Just treat it like a casual experiment, which doesn’t really matter how it goes.

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#7

Going back to edit and rereading are two thongs I do and I’m trying my best to break that habit :sweat_smile: I think what takes up a lot of the time is the fact I think about what I want to say instead of writing it down, so a lot of that editing happens in my head. Next thing I know an hour has passed and I only have a paragraph. Im still working out my writing process for sure, i’ll try my best not to stress out so much going forward. Thank you for your reply ^^

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#8

In that case, NaNo sounds like it could be very helpful for you. It means you get to try out what it’s like when you edit on the page and get up some writing momentum. There can be a good difference because (I believe) the editing uses more of your rational side, whereas if you don’t do that you should be able to tap into your creativity more easily.
It’s worth giving it a try, Also, if you do less editing, you should get more writing done, so that’ll remove a lot of stress.
:+1:

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#9

I have also read/listened to Chris Fox’s books. I have found that any time I have a few minutes I will write down what’s happening in my story. It’s like Chris Fox says in his book they are little micro sprints. Given 50-200 words every 5-10 mins isn’t a ton but when I get in a couple of these a day they help so much. And when I am not writing or having God’s to focus on work I am thinking about what my character is going to do next. I am also behind in NaNoWriMo so stay strong!!! It’s more about writing then making sure it sounds good right out of the gate.

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#10

Some tips for writing more are: Set a timer and write as many words as you can in that time (10 minutes is a good block to aim for first). Record the number of words you wrote and try to beat it next time. Write when your brain is tired. It will be full of typos, but your inner-editor won’t be on and you might get some creative gems. Your first draft is just you telling yourself the story. You have lots of time to make it flow later on :slight_smile:

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#11

It’s true every little bit adds up. I’m feeling better about what I’m managing to get done since it will always be more than what I started with. Best of luck with your own NaNo goals ^^

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#12

I try to avoid writing when I’m tired but maybe I should give that a go. It certainly makes sense. Thank you for your reply ^^