18,587

Well, November is now gone. And National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is over. For the first time, I tried to write a novel. This project was more difficult than I expected and I learned some lessons.

1. Plan before you start. I didn’t learn about this annual November writing challenge until late, so I didn’t have much time to prepare. For next year, I need to do much more research and at least outline the basic plot before November.

2. Write some every day. The goal was to write at least 50,000 words (the length of a short novel) during this month, or about 1,667 words each day. So of course I got distracted, didn’t stick to the schedule and rapidly fell disastrously behind. About mid-month I learned that the best time for me to write was after my quiet time but before starting my regular work day. And by breaking up the goal into small achievable pieces, I was not overwhelmed by the overall goal. By sticking to this plan, I actually saw myself make some progress.

3. Encourage one another. We had a group from church who challenged each other to do this project. Our group only met a couple of times. We tried to encourage each other, but I noticed we basically groaned about how little we had completed. So now we are discussing how we can help each other from December through October to finish what we started and prepare for the next NaNoWriMo.

4. Don’t get too discouraged if you fall short. I only wrote 18,587 words, which is far short of my goal, but much more than I would have had if I didn’t start. And I learned some valuable lessons, so all was not lost.

As I read this advice, I realize that these basics can be applied to just about any project. See my next blog about this topic.