I am beginning a new personal writing challenge today that will continue through the end of December. After finding the Nanowrimo an effective tool and procrastination buster, I will be doing a December 14-31 non-fiction challenge of 25000 words. Acceptable sources will include blog posts (but not comments), articles, and e-book pages. I will not include outlines, poetry, fiction, post-its, notes written on my hand, etc.
For me to achieve this 25000 word goal, I will have to write approximately 1600 words per day, assuming that I begin today and take Christmas day off. Feel free to post comments or questions or email with pledges (which will again go to support the Young Writer’s Program). As an additional incentive for myself, I will be trying out the Write or Die web app. I will let you know in a few days how that works for me as a speed-based motivational tool. I will still be focusing on quality writing, without any outsourcing.
This post, in addition to outlining my plan and writing goal is also the first time I have used the Write or Die software. I am using normal mode, where an annoying sound is played if you stop writing too long. This app at the very least ought to help silence my internal critic, as well as prevent too much editing on the fly.
Unfortunately, I do not have a cool widget for this post to automatically track my progress (there may be one somewhere, but I would rather get some writing done than search for an hour or two and test and add it to this blog. What I will do instead is post updates every day or two, including my word counts, as well, what the breakdown of my writing consisted of (eg two articles for 1200 words, plus a blog post for 400 words.).
Let me know if you want to join in and try to meet this goal, too!
Check back for updates and progress!
UPDATE DEC 16th late PM: 8 articles and (this) one blog post so far. As you can see, I am running pretty close to the pace I need to for the win. I just need to keep it up for two more weeks now.
Okay, it was easier than I thought, albeit without the panache:
Progress bars update Dec 19th, PM. I’ve been doing E-book notes and outlining, which does not count towards my word count goal, and I am a bit behind now. Ready for a surge! UPDATE2: Okay I’m done for the night at 2200 words today, still behind, but looking better. 11 articles, 6 pages of e-book, and one blog post, so far.
Progress bar update Dec 20th: Just 5 bookmarking posts so far today. One of the reasons My 25000 Word Non-Fiction Writing Challenge is more difficult than it appears is first that a half month is less forgiving than a whole month. There is less time to get behind and then recover. Also, Christmas is usually a busier time than people think. Running around slices deep into writing time. P.s.: OVER ONE THIRD of the way to a WIN!
Update Dec 22nd, Afternoon: Trending quite a bit behind after additional Christmas activities yesterday. Today is a writing day, though. I will probably have to write about 2000 words for each of the remaining days this month, not including Christmas Day.
Update Dec 23rd, evening: OVER HALFWAY! I made a bit of progress today against my backlog, get up to 80% of where I ought to be to finish on schedule. I will be heading to the Okanagan for Christmas, leaving my house the night of the 24th and getting home the night of the 28th. As a result, this graph probably will not be updated. It remains to be seen how much writing I will actually do, and I am aware that I could get home with three days remaining and a 10000+ word deficit. Time will tell. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Percentage of minimum writing pace!
Overall progress:
