Writing Tip #1: Finish a Novel Using Daily Word Counts

To write my very first rough draft ever, I used a 30-day novel-writing kit by the founder of NaNoWriMo (originally National November Writing Month).  It had inspirational cards, one a day, and a calendar to fill in with my progress. I loved it!  The most important part of this kit, however, was its emphasis on and support for keeping up daily word counts.  

It really isn't so impossible to write a novel in a month!  Less than 2000 words per day can bring you to a short-novel-length work. For an optimal word count of 70,000 to 80,000 words, however, a writer probably needs to extend well past the 30-day cycle. My daughter used the process effectively in a month-long break from school, keeping up her word counts, but her novel was not near to being done when her time ran out, and she never did get back to writing on it--not yet, anyhow (I keep hoping she will; she's incredibly gifted). Some authors may find it works to just stick to that 50,000-word initial draft length, making sure to wrap it up shortly after hitting the mark, and then go back to add descriptions and metaphors and senses later--all those things that draw in readers.  Sometimes you'll add extra scenes--and at other times you'll delete redundant sections. I can be extremely redundant, I've found!

The worst part is finding yourself rewriting, again and again, when you meant to merely be proofreading that final time.  Each time you go back to do a 'last proof', you think of a better way to say something, a new comparison, more succinct phrasing.  I went through a strange phase where I wanted to clarify everything, and so that was one massive rewrite, but then I went back through later, slashing it all, wondering how daft I thought my readers were!

I say that's 'the worst part', but really, I think my books improve in some way with each go-through.  The edits certainly take more time than the original drafts, so be prepared for that.  I've heard amazing authors say versions of the same thing time and again: "I'm not a very good writer, but I'm a great re-writer!"

Word counts help motivate me to continue my writing. That daily grind is essential to completing a novel and helps it to be cohesive. Print out a calendar and fill in a progress bar.  I even use little foil star stickers to help motivate me--a gold star means I've met my goal that day, but I get a star for any day I even meet half my word count!  After all, at that rate it's only 60 days to a short novel, right?

So there we go. The basics of my writing process in a single-blog nutshell!