The beginning of NaNoWriMo is exciting. You’re full of fire, you love your novel and everything is just so darn fun. You’d be foolish not to take advantage of that and use that spirit to get ahead on your word count early.
Life happens. Things come up. You may need those extra words to make up for days later on when you won’t have a chance to write. If you’ve got a cushion of words to fall back on, a crisis won’t shut you down.
Another great reason to get ahead early is to get a better sense of the shape of your novel right from the start. Will your novel be longer than 50,000 words? Knowing that ahead of time is a great way to help you plan the work ahead of you. Will your story stall out at 10k? How can you add to it? The farther ahead you are at the start, the better prepared you’ll be to identify and deal with issues both in life and in your story.
Lastly, everyone hits a wall in Week Two when they hit the dreaded middle. If you’re ahead on your count, you’ll pass those doldrums while still in the celebratory flurry of Week One and you’ll be coasting through your climax while the rest of us slog through Week Two. It can give you that extra edge you need to win.
Hillary DePiano is a playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer who loves writing of all kinds except for writing bios like this.
