RE: How the hell did some of you people get to the word count you’re at? (NaNoWriMo)

how the hell did some of you people get to the word count you’re at?

My history with NaNo has been somewhat dramatic and for years I have been known as one of the site’s yearly returning over achievers. To reach 50k was never once my goal, heck, I write more than that in a normal month anyways, 50k is nothing (for me at least.) My word counts each year have soared through the roof, and by my past history I should have reached 50k several days ago. (Last year I hit 50k on day 3 – which inspired an inbox full of flaming NaNoHateMails).

My goal this year was simple: To beat my word count from last year (which was 238,135). To make things simple, I just said I’ll aim at 250k, but than I added, I’d really like to double that and go for 500k this year.

Well, that was in October. Than October 20th I had a stroke. Nothing big, but enough to slow me down and make me lose a bit of my coordination skills, which are slowly returning, but still, I’m having difficulty with some things I previously had no problems with. Than to make things just a little bit worse, due to my being in the doctor’s office on the 21st, I ended up coming down with H1N1 flue on the 23rd, and was out of sorts for the next 14 days, bed ridden from the worst flue I’ve ever had in my entire life.

Long story short – my first week at NaNoWriMo this year was cut drastically due to my health not being at it’s peak, and now instead of being in the 100k range I should be at by the end of week one, I’m ended with first week of NaNoWriMo with a miserable 30k.

I’m feeling much better this week, so hopefully I well get back on track. In any case, seeing how I’m so far behind, I don’t think it’s a realistic goal for me to be aiming at 250k any more. I could probably do it if I pushed myself, but I’m still not 100% over the flue yet, so pushing myself is not really an option this year. As a result I changed my goal. My new goal is to end at some point between 100k and 500k. I figure I’m still in the running to hit 100k before the end of the month, and as long as I do that, I’ll be happy, but than once I hit 100k, I plan to keep right on going, just to see how far past it I can make it before the 30th.

As for, how I do it? Well, this year, of course my health has slowed me down, but even so, I’m still getting a pretty high word count. There is however a simple answer to your question:

I am a professional writer. I don’t have a “regular” day job. Writing IS my day job. I wrote my first book in 1978 and haven’t stopped since. I write fiction, non-fiction, how to books, short stories, articles, chap books, children’s chapter books, novels, novellas, and I write an average of 7k words per day, 5 days per week, 52 weeks per year, for the last 31 years.

I’m an “older” woman. In other words, I finished school many years before most of the other NaNoWriters were even born. Thus I have no school work to worry about either.

I am single. No husband or children under feet. I do however have 19 cats.

I do not have a TV. I can write during times when other NaNoWriters are being interrupted by their Soaps, News, Sports, whatever.

I suffer from Agoraphobia and PTSD. I’ve left the house less than a dozen times in the past 30 years.

My day goes like this:

I get up at 7AM and start writing.

Around noon I cook lunch, and than check the forums (which is why I’m here at this very moment.)

From about 2PM to about 7PM I do whatever needs being done around the house/yard. If I have time I read during this time too.

Between 7Pm – 9PM it’s time to cook and eat and read. At 9PM it’s back on the computer to write until Midnight.

Five minutes before Midnight I update my word count that cruise the forums for a couple of hours.

I go to bed around 3AM, sleep 4 hours and start over again the next day.

That is my schedule all year long – not just during NaNoWriMo, btw. As you can see, my days are spent pretty much doing nothing but writing all day long each and every day. I average 8 hours of writing per day. Just as others spend 8 hours a day at work, so too do I spend 8 hours a day a work, it’s just that I work at home and my job is to write.

What that all means is, I am at home 24 hours a day, and thus I am writing morning, noon, and night. And NaNoWriMo or no NaNoWriMo, I would being writing 100k to 200k this month anyways, so I might as well do it here with you guys rather than do it alone, like I do the rest of the 11 months of the year.

So, when you look at those of us who are way far ahead of the rest, think of it this way – most of us, have done NaNoWriMo many years now, and most of us are profession full time or part time writers who would have written this much anyways, even if NaNoWriMo did not exist, AND once upon a time, long ago and far a way, we were like you, trying to figure out how others found time to write. We didn’t always write like this. It took us many years of practice to learn how to make time to write.

If you have time (like 4 or 5 hours) to read a really long, really detail explanation about how I do it, you can read this: http://www.squidoo.com/The13StepMethod which I wrote specifically for NaNoWriters who ask this question to me dozens of times every single year.

Think of it as playing the piano – you don’t start out at Carnegie Hall, it takes years of practice to get there. You can’t do it over night, but if you stick with it and devote years of your life to practicing, you will eventual reach your goal and become, the writer with high word counts. Slow and steady wins the race, so, don’t worry about it. Just write what you can, when you can. If you have to, get up an hour earlier and go to bed an hour later and write while eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Oh yeah – and Moxie – seriously – lots of Moxie. I drink two cases of Moxie a week during November. The caffeine high has me writing at super hyper speeds, even when I had H1N1 and shouldn’t have been able to write a word. Forget RedBull giving you wings – Moxie gives you jets packs!

Moxie btw way, for those who never heard of it: http://www.moxiefestival.com/

All Hail Bela Lugosi!

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