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So you’ve decided to join a 50k words in thirty days writing challenge, but it's snuck up on you, and you’re feeling decidedly not ready to write 50k words of a novel in a month.
Don’t panic, because this post has been written especially for you! Keep reading to find out how to win at your chosen challenge, even if you’re feeling overwhelmed or don’t know where to start.
To win your challenge, you need to write 50,000 words in thirty days, which works out at an average of 1,667 words per day.
Established writers might already have a schedule where they’re regularly writing that many words, but if you’re new to to writing, you probably don’t. It’s important to figure out – before your challenge start date – how you’re going to find all this extra time for writing. Trust me, winging it and deciding you’ll “write when you have time” will quite likely end up with you getting really behind and giving up.
Writing speed obviously varies considerably among writers. Some can write 3,000 words in an hour, some only write 500.
Before planning your schedule, try to work out how much time you need to write 1,667 words. The easiest way is to time yourself during an average writing session.
Your writing style and the amount of preparation you’ve done will also affect your writing speed. For example, if you have a detailed outline, you may write faster because you’ll have a guide to what you need to write next. If you’re the type of writer who needs to edit as you write, you’ll need more time to reach 50,000 words than someone who does no editing until the first draft is finished.
Now you know how many hours per day you need, it’s time to figure out where you can find them in your schedule. This will be personal to you, your normal daily life, and how far you can push yourself, but consider doing things like:
Getting up earlier or going to bed later (or both) to write
Writing during your commute or lunch break
Writing during downtime instead of watching TV or scrolling on your phone
Not writing every day. You don’t have to write every day – you could write only at weekends or on quieter days, or even book a vacation from work and write all day for two weeks!
Build in a buffer. Don’t plan your writing schedule assuming you’re going to be writing at your maximum speed every time you write. You might get stuck with your story, or life might get in the way. When you can, add in some writing sessions that should allow you to write more than you need to so you can get ahead, or catch up if you need to.
To write your 50,000 words, you’re going to need to stick to your plan. You might want to add your writing days to your diary or print out your schedule. It might be easier to stay motivated if your writing plan is written down in black and white or stuck somewhere you’re going to see it every day.
As well as planning when you’re going to write your novel, you might find it helpful to plan at least some of your story.
Again, all authors are different, and some prefer to have a detailed plan before they start writing, while others feel constrained by an outline and prefer to discover the story as they write it.
However, I do think it’s useful to have a basic idea of some elements before you start, especially when the goal is to write a lot of words in a short space of time; you don’t want to get halfway through the month and realise you no longer like your story or there’s not enough of an idea there to sustain 50,000 words.
Think about the following six things in as much detail as feels right for you before you start writing, but remember, you can always divert from or change your plans as your novel develops. Your plan is meant to guide you, not stifle you.
Choose a Genre
Create Your Main Characters
Build Your Setting
Choose Your POV and Tense
Write Your Novel’s Premise
Decide on Your Main Plot Points
Now we’re getting down to the hard part: the actual writing of 50,000 words in 30 days! It’s easy to plan when, where, and what you’re going to write, but more often than not, following through on those plans is what’s difficult.
The most important thing is to keep going. A word count of 1,667 words every day is a lot, and it’s easy to get behind if you stop. Fortunately, there are a multitude of productivity hacks that you can use to keep yourself productive and motivated. As with anything, try a few, and pick the ones that work best for you.
A sprint is when you set a timer for something like thirty minutes and sit down to write as many words as you can within that time. The time you set yourself is up to you, but don’t give yourself so long that you don’t feel any pressure to work quickly. The idea is that the time limit encourages you to work fast for short bursts.
The point of your challenge draft is to write 50,000 words of your novel in 30 days To keep the words flowing, resist the temptation to do anything but write. And by this I don’t mean you have to stop going to work or doing important things like eating, sleeping, or relaxing; I mean don’t stop writing to edit, or research, or look up that one word that you know isn’t quite right.
Don’t even stop to try to figure out what happens in the next scene or chapter if you have no idea how it’s going to play out. Skip the troublesome scenes and write the ones that you do have ideas for.
If you get to a section in your novel where you know something isn’t quite right, or you know where your characters need to go but not how they’re going to get there, leave yourself a note so you can come back to it later. Make your notes to yourself bold or highlight them so they’re easier to find during the revision process.
This way of writing isn’t for everybody, but I think it’s a method that suits the goal of writing lots of words in a relatively short space of time.
An accountability partner makes sure you do what you’ve said you’ll do. You tell them how many words you’re aiming to write on which days, they check in with you to make sure you’ve written them, and often, you do the same for them.
Your accountability partner might be someone you meet up with in real life so you can write together, you might join them via Zoom or something similar, or you may complete your writing separately and check in at the end of the day with each other to share your progress.
Working alongside an accountability partner adds a little extra pressure to stick to your writing plans because, oddly enough, you’re more likely to do something that you’ve promised someone else you’ll do than if you’ve made that same promise just to yourself.
Some writers appreciate complete silence as they work, others love a coffee shop because they like the background noise, some find they’re more creative in the mornings, and others find the words flowing late at night.
In an ideal world, you’d always be able to write in an environment that best suited you. But, seeing as this is the real world, that’s unlikely. Consider ways in which you can adapt your writing environment to make it as close to ideal as you can, or at least reduce some of the stresses.
Can you dedicate a corner of your house as a permanent writing space? Can you use noise-cancelling headphones? Can you write notes on a mobile app while you’re out and about, to avoid carting your laptop everywhere, then copy and paste them into your manuscript later?
Music is scientifically proven to affect your mood and energy levels, and the right music can improve your motivation and productivity.
A quick search through YouTube will bring up thousands of playlists of background music, and you can narrow your search to find those that have been created for writers. You will even find playlists created with specific genres in mind that aim to provide a specific inspiring and immersive experience as you write.
If you fancy something more scientific, try brain.fm, which creates distraction-free music that blends into the background but helps you focus and also stimulates your brain.
Doing anything challenging is always easier with backup. Tell your family and friends what you’re doing and how they might help you. Support might come in the form of them helping you make more time for writing, making sure you sit down to write when you plan to, or simply offering words of encouragement or motivation.
Connecting with other writers is useful, too. As well as offering writing-related advice, help, and accountability, other writers might be available for in-person or online co-writing sessions, and it’s always nice to be able to vent to people who understand your problems and frustrations.
If you’re struggling to find “real life” support, consider joining an online writing group or forum.
An intense writing challenge can be a fun, highly motivating experience, and many writers do one year after year. However, it's important to be realistic about what you'll end up with at the end of it.
You may not even end up with a finished first draft – for most genres, 50,000 words isn't a high enough word count – and you'll definitely not end up with anything that's ready to publish. Your novel will need a lot of revision and self-editing.
So don't be upset if you get to the end of your thirty days and find yourself thinking your novel is a bit of a mess. The goal, after all, isn't to write a finished novel, it's to write 50,000 words of a first draft.
Remember, the words you write during your 30-day challenge are just the beginning of your novel-writing journey.
Yes, I know I said it’s important to keep going if you want to win at your challenge. But what if you’re absolutely hating the pressure of a strict word count goal? What if you’re stressing yourself out trying to squeeze writing time into your day? What if your story has ground to a halt and you need to work some things out before you can write more words?
Yes, writing 50k words in 30 days is hard. It’s meant to be a challenge, after all. However, it’s also meant to be enjoyable, and the tight deadline and high word count goal is there to motivate and inspire you, not overwhelm you and make you miserable.
If you're getting stressed out, and you’re beginning to dread sitting down to write, it’s ok to say that this isn’t for you.
I think this might be the most important piece of advice for you as you’re planning for and working through your writing challenge. Anything that you achieve during your thirty days that you normally wouldn’t have achieved is worth celebrating. And that could be anything to do with your writing, not just your word count for the month.
A lot of writers don’t take part in these types of high word count, short deadline writing challenges because they know that they doesn’t suit how they like to write, and maybe in taking part in one, you’ll discover you’re one of those writers. That doesn’t mean you’ve failed, though.
Even if you don’t write 50,000 words of a novel, every word you do write, every hour you find to sit down to write, and every discovery you make about your novel or yourself as a writer should be celebrated.
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