Halfway There: NaNoUhOh

Okay, who’s written 25,000 words already for NaNoWriMo?

Show of hands? Anyone? 

Me neither. 

But do not despair!

Today I offer you proof that no matter how far behind you are, there is hope!

I was talking with a writer friend about how I'd begun to doubt my chances of reaching 50,000 words by November 30th and she told me about Marissa Meyer. Marissa wrote the first three books in the Lunar Chronicles (the first novel in the series, Cinder, was released in January of 2012) during NaNoWriMo. Not three separate NaNoWriMos, ONE NaNoWriMo. Thirty days, 150,000 words.

That’s 5,000 words a day, people. I’ve still got time to write a book and a half!

Oh, heck, I might as well try for 10,000 words a day!

Author Rachel Aaron explains how she does just that in this guest post on SFWA’s website.

Totally doable, right?

Kiersten White wrote Paranormalcy in three weeks and Mind Games (out in February 2013) in nine days.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, in less than three weeks.

Agatha Christie wrote her first detective novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles in two weeks.

According to Robert Louis Stevenson’s stepson, the author wrote Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in three days.

John Boyne wrote The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in two and a half days.

Even if you haven’t written a single word, you can still “win” NaNoWriMo! At this point, all you have to do is write 3,333.33 words per day!

And you only have to keep up that pace for two weeks! As opposed to month after month like Dame Barbara Cartland who holds the Guinness World Record for the most novels written in a year. Want to guess how many she wrote?

TWENTY-THREE!

Dame Barbara. She wrote 723 novels during her lifetime. 
And looked fabulous while doing it.

Okay, so maybe you’re not one of those people who can whip out a rough draft in two weeks or even a month. But how will you know unless you try? That’s what NaNoWriMo is about for me this year. Going for it. Putting my writing first for an entire month and just seeing what happens.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got 2,417 more words to go today...