I've never made the 50,000 word mark, but I have since last year finished the novel I started in November and its at around 30,000. Even if parts of the novel end up being trashed come December, the mere fact that you've written that many words is an incredible feeling. And there's a good chance that something out of those 50,000 is put in the right order and turns out to be the gem you needed to convince you that you can write.
Just do it. Try it. Make the goal less if 50,000 scares you. I'm at 8065 this moment, but even if you're at zero, it's the weekend and that means the perfect time to start that novel you've always dreamed of writing! Don't have a clue of what to write? Begin by writing about your day and the day before that, and then see where it takes you.
Some quick tips and then I need to get back to my story:
- No editing. Whatsoever! That comes later, in December.
- Describe things in very lengthy detail. Describe a character's hair for three pages. It's the only way you'll get to 50,000 unless you don't do anything other than write.
- It will not be well-written. That goes for everyone. Even great writers will end up writing mostly trash. It's the fact that you get it down that matters. You can make it sound pretty later.
- Have somewhat of a plan if you really want to do it right. Know your ending, or the basic resolution. At least have some sense of what will happen, or else you'll burn out at 10,000 with no where to go. That happened to me my first year and it was pretty disappointing.
Well, I better go write some more.
At least check out the website: http://www.nanowrimo.org/
Thanks for reading! :-)
