We’re entering the second full week of November, and with any luck, you’re almost halfway through your novel. Of course, not everyone is lucky. If you’re one of the unlucky ones, you might be sitting three, five, even ten thousand words behind. You might not even have started, or you might be considering throwing your novel away and trying for a completely new one. No matter what the case is, don’t despair. Remember that even if you don’t reach 50, 000 words, you’re still a winner for trying and you’ve still written more than you would have otherwise. Also keep in mind that it depends more on your dedication than the number of days you have left–I’ve hit 50, 000 words in three days before and I’ve met people who have done it in one.
No matter what your word count is, you’re probably going to face some difficulties this week. At the beginning, your novel was fresh, new and exciting. By now there’s a good chance you’re sick of your story and either want to give up completely or start over.
Don’t give up. You have no idea what you’re capable of until you do it. Every entrepreneur I’ve ever met has been amazed by what they could accomplish. Success is found by pushing yourself beyond what you think is capable. If you have to, start your story over or start a new one, but don’t give up. Keep your old novel in a back up file in case you need it for some extra word count or if you decide to go back to it. Then forge ahead and create something new.
For all those who are already discouraged, and all those who will get discouraged this week–week two is always a rough time for many Nanoers–I’ve decided to host a challenge this weekend. It’s a challenge which was originally run on the Nanowrimo forums a few years ago and which I have done myself several times and hosted in my local forum and chatroom.
So what’s the challenge? Your goal is to take four hours out of this weekend and dedicate them purely to writing, attempting to write 10K in those four hours. This is challenging both to newbies and to overachievers and forces you to focus on your writing for a solid chunk of time. While it’s a difficult pace for some, anyone who ordinarily types quickly should be able to achieve this goal. And even if you don’t manage to reach 10K before your time is up, you’ll still have written more that day than you would have otherwise and gotten a nice chunk of word count.
To combat my lethargy last week and this weekend, I’ll be doing this challenge Saturday from 12-4. If you’re unable to participate at that time due to other obligations, that’s all right. You can pick any four hour chunk of this weekend to focus on writing. Just leave a comment letting me know who you are and which hours you’ve chosen for your writing spree. If you’re feeling brave and you want to create a new word count goal for yourself, you can leave that information in your comment too.
So what do you get out of this? Well, you get a few thousand–right up to ten thousand–words for your novel and an idea of how much you really can write in just a few hours. Even better, next Wednesday I’ll be writing a post listing all the Nanoers who successfully complete this challenge over the weekend. Simply let me know when you did your 10K, what your final word count was in the four hours, and include your Nanowrimo name and a link to whatever website you have. Then on Wednesday, you’ll get to see your name and link go up on my blog, forever honoring you as an incredibly quick fingered writer.
So, are you in?