1667 words a day or 12K words a week?

Conversely, I have more spare time in the week than at weekends. More time in the week because I only work part-time, the children are at school and go to bed at a reasonable hour. At the weekend everything goes to pot and I find I have very little spare time to write. So I’m thinking I need to write much more than 1667 words a day Monday to Friday to give me a little breathing space at weekends.

How are you targeting yourself?

I would be particularly interested to hear seasoned NaNoWriMo writer’s thoughts or advice on this.

People work in different ways, but one good thing to keep in mind is that if you have done your goal for the day, and still have the fire to keep working, do so. The more words you can write early on, the easier it will be for you later in the month. Building up even an extra 100 words here and there can make a difficult day or two not turn into a diaster. People are generally more excited at the start of the month, so take advantage of that excitment -- but try not to use the extra words too early to make your daily or weekly goal. You'll very likely want them later!

People on the NaNo boards are spreading the idea of a decreasing quota - equivalent to something like 3000 words a day in week 1, 2000 words a day in week 2, 1500 words a day in week 3, and 700 words a day week 4, with the last two days to relax. (you can divide it down more finely by day, but I like the idea of stepping by week.) Has anybody tried anything like this?

I'm actually really liking the idea, because my problem previous years has been doing really well at the beginning, then getting complacent, then getting stuck, then running out of steam. If I front-load my goals, maybe I can short-circuit that.

Thanks Zette and melannen for the advice.

I think front-loading is definitely a good idea but 3000 words a day in week one sounds pretty scary!

I'm shooting for the daily 1667 just because as a first timer I really feel the need to sit down and commit to a daily process. I think I'll start out strong (hopefully) and I expect work to interfere (travel, commitment to long hours) somewhere in the middle. Hopefully I can get around the daily target and push through the gaps on the weekends. I think I may wake up and try to put up a couple hundred words, plan at lunch, and then write again in the evenings when i get home.

As Zette says, its all on how you work best.

Personally, I like to shoot for 2000 words a day, all month long. If I fall short, I still have a good cushion built up from previous days. I always lose at least two days during November (my birthday and Thanksgiving when I have family over) so I need to account for the lost time.

Recent experience has shown I'm a good morning writer, so I try to find time before work, or during lunch, to write, as I have the energy to do so. Sometimes, when you write makes as much of a difference as how much you write.

Take the first couple days to find your line, as they say in racing, and stick to it as best you can. Flat tires expected, but you have a great pit crew in other NaNo'ers along to motivate and keep you going.

Good luck to all! (I remain your cheerleader even as I don't take the challenge this year.)

I'm thinking of aiming for 3000 words on days off and the standard 1700 (I'm rounding up) on days when I work. I have 13 days off scheduled for November (awesome!) -- in addition to weekends (8 days), I have 3 compressed days off (I work longer hours the other days to have every 2nd Monday off), there's a holiday for Remembrance Day on the 11th, and I booked off the 12th as a vacation. If there are no surprises at work, taking more vacation time later in the month is also an option, but calculating on that basis, I would write 39,000 words on these days off, and 28,900 on my 17 workdays (for a fictional grand total (pun intended) of 67900 words (i.e. lots of cushion since my goal is the 50k words, not anything above and beyond that).

I expect I need to get these done earlier in the day than later, as I am no longer any sort of night owl, and often asleep by 10:00. I'm nervous about it, but I am reminding myself that it's just for fun and if it stops being any fun at all, I can just stop. I'll just see how it goes. Which is not to say that I won't persist if not every bit of it is fun -- I don't expect it to be entirely fun -- only that if there is no fun or enjoyment to be had from it, I will jump ship.

Deesirings ~ Oh, I do hope you have fun! Be sure to look for some local write-ins. They are always fun, and energizing.

You've certainly got a plan worked out. I should be as organized.

Well, Storeetllr, I just worked out that plan as I made that post... I'd been thinking earlier in the day that I should write twice as much on days off, but I didn't do any planning until I wrote out that post, figuring out how many days off I had vs. how many days I was working and what the word count would add up to. Just to reveal that this "plan" and "organization" you perceive are shallow at best and completely illusory at worst.

Oh, well, that makes me feel better. lol

I stayed up till around 10:00 last night working on my synopsis, then passed out so missed the midnight starting gun. Taking my AlphaSmart to the office, though, and plan to do some writing on my breaks and at lunch. We'll see. I'm still trying to decide whether to write in first person or third. lol

I usually aim for 2000 a day. That's more or less doable, and it gives you enough of a cushion that if you have a bad day or two you're not totally hosed. Of course, I haven't managed to actually finish since 2005... but I do feel like the daily goal is kind of key, because otherwise it just seems so huge to me, I won't make any headway.