4 Tips for Writing 50,000 Words in a Month
Some are old but are worth repeating
Nanowrimo’s still a ways off, yet, like me, you might be thinking about what you’re going to do. If you’ve got the opportunity, I’d say now’s as good a time as any to start practicing to reach your ideal word count.
You should know that actually reaching that goal is going to feel good. Like, really good. If you’re at all passionate about writing, I highly encourage you to give it a shot.
I managed to reach the word count goal for Nanowrimo 2019, and for the next four months after, I kept up the same pace.
Context where context is due: I was working part-time, so I was able to devote multiple hours a day to it. But I’ve been improving. I’m closing in on 2,000 words an hour. With practice, you can make even short sessions productive.
Here’s how:
Write lots of stuff. Most of it will be fluff. Cut it later
Okay, technically two tips right off the bat, but they go hand in hand, so here they are as a package deal.
You’re going to have to sacrifice some quality for volume in the early stages of your work, otherwise, you run the risk of falling short of your goal, getting frustrated, then burning out. Don’t bog yourself down, fearing that individual lines or passages aren’t up to snuff. That’s what editing is for.
I write as I go, and I’m sure some of you are the same. Even if you do adhere to a plan, odds are you’ll have to make some stuff up.
For example, I had no idea who the villains in my book were until they literally showed up and put my protagonist in prison.
Diverge a little, when you need to. You might surprise yourself and stumble upon something great. And you’re going to be that much closer to 50,000 words. It’s better to have some bloat to work on than stretching out a bare-bones story. Especially because…
You’re going to delete a lot of what you wrote.
“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”
— Stephen King
I ended up with a 250,000 word draft for a novel. I got rid of at least half because it was unusable. I had long paragraphs of multiple phrases that were really repeats of the preceding sentences.
You don’t need that.
Incorporate insecurities, if possible
Odds are you’ll have some pet peeve about your own writing. Maybe you overuse adverbs. Maybe you’re not good about sensory details. You can spend an infinite amount of time agonizing about it, but that only takes away from your progress and slows you down.
Your first instinct is going to try to cut out your weakness. Don’t do that just yet.
I wrote about this before, but I had a hand problem. I wouldn’t shut up about them. They were the first things I’d mention about a person.
Oh, what lovely, delicate, dainty digits she has. Notice how she deftly and dexterously spins a pen between her knuckles.
Bleagh.
For several chapters, I studiously ignored all hands, until I realized one simple fact: my protagonist had been avoiding eye contact with everyone the whole time. Of course, he’d fixate on people’s hands instead.
It became part of his character to study what folks did with their hands. His way of determining their mood.
If you’ve got a quirk that appears often in your work, it’s much easier to incorporate it than to exorcise it from your pages entirely.
Not everything is worth including, but it may surprise you what can be made viable if you’re willing to experiment a little. I saved a lot of time that I would’ve spent searching for mention of hands.
Like in life, be purposeful
You don’t have to have a detailed roadmap to plan your writing. You can have some intentions in mind, going in, without needing to know the exact details of what’s about to happen.
“Today, my characters are going to finally air their dirty laundry about each other. They’re going to fight.”
That’s a good start.
Along the way, unforeseen, a third character could roll up and shake up the dynamic. But you need that initial idea in mind that guides the scene until it finds its own legs.
I can easily tell the difference in both the speed and quality of my writing when I’m 100% winging it. It sounds aimless, and it takes way longer to get on track or even find a consistent voice.
Compared to that, when I set out with intentions, I get in the groove quickly. I’m able to keep my characters on point, sounding like themselves, instead of actors I’m giving random directions to.
That might still sound like making an outline, but it’s really more about having a destination. It’s alright to be unsure how you’re going to get there, just be sure you’re not wandering completely at random.
Satisfaction is not (always) guaranteed
Remember how I said it feels great to look at your word count and see how far you’ve come? Not everyone may feel that way. I know there were days I didn’t care at all.
I’m going to assume that if you’re making an effort that you’re doing it because you enjoy writing. But if that’s not the case… why bother?
This last piece of advice is for those of you who know that this is what you want, for when you’re feeling down and tired. You can’t muster up any of the enthusiasm you had at the beginning of the trip. It just feels like more work on top of your actual paying job.
Trust me. It’s going to happen at some point. The trick is to remember that it’s a temporary feeling. It’s one you’re going to have to push past and keep writing anyway if you want to succeed in your ultimate goal.
You know yourself better than I do. So, if you enjoyed writing and seeing progress at some point in the journey, odds are you’ll come back around to that. Knowing that there’s satisfaction to come is a huge motivator. It’s what allowed me to ignore temporary negativity and to keep on task.
Take care of yourself. If you need to take a break and fall short of a daily word count, then sometimes that’s what you have to do. Just make sure you make up the time.
