Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Word Count Wednesday

So November is NaNoWriMo (or National Write a Book in a Month) where participants write 50,000 words on a new novel.

Because of the family and time commitments that I have right now, I’m unable to participate (and probably won’t until my kids are much older,) but I still like the idea of working for a month and setting goals that work for me.

So, I’m going to do a mini-NaNoWriMo and call it JuCanWriMo (JulieCanWriteMore). (Doesn't that sound motivating?) I want to set a goal to write 18,000 words this month. And while that sounds like a lot for me, (okay, a TON!) I broke it down so it won’t seem overwhelming.

It’s 4200 words a week.

Or 600 words a day.

When I put it that way, it seems more manageable and doable for someone like me.

I hope you’ll join me and put your goal count in the comments so we can check in with each other every Wednesday on how we’re doing.

So, for this week, I’m not going to post my word count since it had some October in it (but I did really well!) and I’m going to start counting from yesterday.

I think this is going to be fun!

13 comments:

rebecca h jamison said...

I love your JuCanWriMo. That's cool you wrote that scout book. I have 2 boy scouts and is it ever confusing!

The press date for my book got pushed up to Dec. So I haven't worked on my WIP this week at all. Last week, I wrote around 1000. My goal is 20 pages for the month.

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Rebecca, with six boys, I've done a lot of scouting and I always thought that we needed a little "training manual" if you will to help parents navigate through the program. That's why I wrote that book, hoping it would help other parents like me!

That's awesome about your book and your word count. Twenty pages sounds good to me, too! :)

Sarah Tokeley said...

Good on you for setting goals that suit you. I'll post my NaNo figures along with you next week :-)

Janice Sperry said...

I like your idea of setting personal goals. I'll call it JaCaProLe (Janice can procrastinate less) My goal is to edit 1 chapter a day (except Sat and Sun). Hopefully, by the end of the month, my first draft will be done.

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

That sounds good, Sarah. I'm anxious to see your progress. Have you done NaNo before?

Janice, I love that! JaCaProLe. LOL Can't wait to hear how you do. :)

Angie said...

I'm with you. I can't handle a full-on NaNo, but I'm committing myself to 15 pages or about 3000 words every week this month. I did reach my goal last week of getting to page 200!

Unknown said...

Not doing NaNo either for all the same reasons. But my goal is finish my WIP this month. Because I'm at 79,000 words and it's gotta end sometime, right?

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Angie, congrats on reaching your goal! And we have almost the same goals for November. Yay!

Brittany, did you hear me do a fangurl squeal that you're almost done! I can't wait to read it. (If it's the same story you've been working on that you let me read, that is.) :)

Nikki Stuckwisch said...

Can I join you? NiCaWriMo. I need to get cracking on my WIP, which has been sitting at around 20K for a few weeks now. Life just keeps getting in the way, and I need to make it stop NOW. Let's get some writing done this month!

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Nikki, I would LOVE to have you! The more the merrier. Let's get to it and keep each other on track. :)

Stephanie Black said...

My goal for November is to finish the 3rd draft of my WIP. Of course, I guess that means I need to finish the 2nd draft first . . . almost there . . .

Anonymous said...

Best of luck... Hope it all works out for you...
Math Practice

Stephanie said...

It's so good to hear that I'm not the only one who struggles to find time to write amidst my busy day as a mom. I've set the goal to finish my WIP by the end of Nov - currently at about 35k words - but still a stretch with my busy schedule. My bigger goal is to finish 3 manuscripts by April so my husband and I can start writing something together.
Good luck to everyone!