The Incremental. If you're looking to achieve your goal in regular, dependable increments, this is the way to go. 50,000 words in the 30 days of November equals 1,667 words per day. If you hit that mark every single one of the 30 days in November, you'll reach your goal just in time.

The Chunker. Not every can dedicate the time to write exactly the same amount of words every day. It might be a busy day at work or with the family, so you write nothing. But on another day you might have the house to yourself, or be traveling somewhere and have several uninterrupted hours during which you can crank out several thousand words. The easiest way to tackle this approach is to keep the daily average in mind as a goal, but to spread it out however you need to. For example, you need to write 3,334 words every two days, or 5,001 words every three days. If your goal is to write 5,000 words every three days, maybe two of those days are 500 words, and you manage to write 4,001 words on that third day.

The Weekend Warrior. Those of us who have busy lives during the week (work, school, family obligations, etc.) might choose to do the majority of their writing on their days off. Which, despite the name of the title of this method, could be any couple of days and not just on the weekend. Similar to the Chunker above, it's about looking at the week as a whole. If there are four weeks in a month, that's 12,500 words per week. If the actual days of the week are just untenable, that's 6,250 words per day for two days a week. Dedicate your days off to writing and you can still get across the finish line.

The Sprinter. Much like someone who runs a race by going all-out for as long as possible, the goal here is to write as much as you can while you're first starting out and have the energy. If you can crank out 10,000 words in the first couple of days, or get to 25,000 words by the end of the first ten days of November, that allows you to reduce the daily word count you have to hit for the rest of the month. If you write 25,000 words in the first ten days (which is only 2,500 words a day), that means you only have to write 1,250 words a day for the next 20 days.

The Procrastinator Approach. The opposite of the Sprinter, this is the person who (either by design or by accident) leaves the writing until the last minute. Maybe you've only written 10,000 words in the first 20 days, and you have to write 40,000 words over the next 10 days (i.e., 4,000 words a day). That's not impossible, as long as you've scheduled your time in advance and know it's coming. The unique thing about trying to write a novel during the month of November, specifically, is that the end of the month has a Thanksgiving holiday... so it may very well be a valid choice for you to make what progress you can during the month, knowing that the long holiday weekend of Thanksgiving is where you're going to make most of your progress

To be honest, if it wasn't for WdC getting all up in arms, I wouldn't have even known there was a bunch of NaNo drama.

I think it's quite possible to do NaNo without being impacted. I don't read most of their official statements (and usually brush off any perceived offenses as my own issues, not the other party trying to offend me), so I wasn't aware of that mess.

On the NaNo site, I mostly just message friends, update my word count, and hang out in the Veterans forum and the Adoption Society area to give and get writing ideas. Aside from when the forums were shut down, I was completely unaware, so yeah, you can totally do NaNo, even on their site, without being negatively impacted, if you choose.

In fact, once I did find out, I found this place to be more upsetting than my spots I hang out in on NaNo. But that's obviously me. If others weren't paying so much attention to what happens in other parts there, there wouldn't be any drama, IMO. lol

I'm not saying NaNo is a perfect place, but it can certainly be enjoyed without getting mixed up in things, if that's the route one wants to go. But then, I prefer to avoid the drama. Plus, I think people need to pay more attention to the intent than the execution of statements. NaNo never intended to offend people. Did they do a great job of that, obviously not. But when you want to find a reason to be offended, you can. If you realize they're just people like we are who enjoy writing and want everyone to have a good time, it's easier to gloss over anything that's not worded how we'd, individually, like.

This year, I'll be on the NaNo site again, just enjoying my Veterans forum and Adoption Society threads.


Thanks for the mention of NaNoWriMo - that organization seems to be having some trouble, but the concept is good. I just pray they can change and continue to grow. OctoPrep is a great idea for anyone wanting to continue on to NaNoWriMo! Signups through September.