If you don’t have a goal you can’t reach for it. I’m sure most of you have decided to write a certain number of words daily. If not, you might want to give that a try.

Are you reaching your goals? Do you have what it takes? Sometimes other things in life interfere with a goal-maker’s resolve. If you need sleep so you can get up for work or school in the morning, then that must be your priority. So be it. We cannot let novel writing interfere with reality.

Still, we’ve got that 50,000-word goal to think about during NaNoWriMo…

Cut that into bite sized pieces and it isn’t so hard to reach. So how many days can you definitely devote to writing this month? Days with only one available hour count, though ideally three or four hours would be preferable.

If you can write on at least twenty-five days this month, you’re in luck. 50K divided by 25 equals 2000 words daily MINIMUM. Promise yourself at least that many before you hang it up for the day.

If you have only fifteen days to write this month, let’s hope you’ve got more than one hour on each of those days. 50K divided by 15 equals 3333.33 words daily. Do not settle for less, or you’re in danger (BIG danger) of falling behind.

Every year there are NaNoWriMo participants that wait until the last few days of the month, then R-U-S-H to finish. Do you want to be one of them? I certainly don’t so I pace myself with a daily goal. I like writing 2500 words daily. Sometimes it is really hard for me to reach that goal, but other days I’ll speed ahead with 5000 or more words. Still, the goal is to reach the MINIMUM for the day and under no circumstances to stop writing and fall asleep before that minimum number of words is reached.

With a goal of 2500 words daily I can finish this novel in just twenty days! (Usually it takes less.)

YOU can do that! It just takes that magical word, DETERMINATION. Hug that word. That word is your friend.

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