Friday, August 3, 2018

wordcount - How do you meet a writing quota?


As a parent with a full-time job, I usually have a limited amount of time to write each day. What are some tricks I can try to reach a specific word count in a specific time (e.g. 500 words in an hour).


I know I've seen some things like this posted on NaNoWriMo forums, but it seems like those folks tend to offer ideas that increase word count at the expense of quality, like writing out your character's grocery list or having characters mishear one another, requiring them to repeat themselves.



Answer



While I don't think those NanoWriMo tricks are good -- just trying to increase word counts -- I think there is something you can take away from NaNoWriMo: just write. Don't stop to edit yourself. Sit down with a kitchen timer, or the timer on your iPhone and set it for say, 20 minutes. Start writing and don't stop until that timer dings. Will this first draft be Pulitzer Prize material? Probably not. But good writing comes from rewriting anyway. Getting that first draft down is half of that battle.


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