Writing challenges

NaNoWriMo was formed in 1999 and ran until 2025. It was an American not-for-profit website that encouraged would-be authors across the globe to write 50,000 words during the month of November. Writing is a lonely business and NaNoWriMo sought to connect people, creating a sense of community as they undertook this incredible November challenge. The rules were simple: the book had to be something new, you couldn't start it before November (although notes and ideas were allowed), and to win you had to complete 50,000 words by the end of the month. This could either be a complete novel of at least 50,000 words, or the start of a longer work to be completed later.

It wasn't about quality, it was about quantity and speed. Some authors are appalled by the concept of disregarding literary standards in the interests of just getting a draft done. That's fine: they don't have to do this kind of challenge. But I know that a rough draft can be edited, tweaked, expanded, rewritten and made perfect. And you can't do any of those things if you don't have a rough draft to begin with.

I attempted NaNoWriMo four times. I failed once (due to not being mentally prepared for the immense effort needed to win at that challenge), and I succeeded three times. My best effort was my novel Oversleeper (written under the pseudonym Matt Mountebank) which progressed at an average of 1,850 words per day and got me to the target with three days to spare. I then spent six weeks completing the novel, ultimately reaching a word count of almost 85,000. I then filed it away for a few months before returning for some intense editing, and finally it was published four years after the NaNoWriMo event.

If you're participating in this kind of writing challenge and are trying to blitz your way through to a finished draft in just a month, you need to divide your target word count into manageable proportions. To achieve the typical target of 50,000 words in 30 days, the main target should be to write 1,667 words per day. How you reach that number is up to you. What worked for me was to aim for three separate writing sessions: 600 words in the morning, 600 words in the afternoon and 467 words in the evening. I weighted the targets towards the earlier parts of the day to make the final session less daunting, and breaking the total into manageable chunks also helped to get me to the finish line.