I’m planning to NaNo for the first time in 2006 (this November was far too busy, alas), but I’m thinking I’ll have one or two practice runs first – in part because next November’s so far away and I’m impatient like that, but also because I’d really rather not throw myself in at the deep end without any idea of what’s going to happen. I’m only just easing myself back into writing after being thoroughly put off it for some years – the last thing I want is for that creative spark to get overloaded and go back into hiding.
I’ve worked out that to write 50,000 words in 30 days (and allowing for the occasional slow or busy day), I should be aiming for 1800-2000 words per day. Or, to put it another way (and the way that it automatically presents to me), one first-year Arts essay per day.
eep
So, my first practice run shall be April (there are good reasons for waiting ‘til April, but not ones I need to go into here), and I shall aim to write 500-750 words per day. Which may not sound like much, but given my current fictional output of practically nothing, it’s still a big step up. The idea is then to have another practice run around August and aim for something like 1000-1200 words per day, and then move on to the big one.
(Note to Self: For April, use ‘Supercon’ – you’ve done much less work on it than ‘Misfits’, but it’s a much more straightforward story (and a better developed plot!) and I suspect it’ll flow a lot more easily and suffer from far less writer’s block.)
