The normal goal for NaNoWriMo is 50,000 words. They used to list novels that were about 50k words long, such as:
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (50,061 words)
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (46,333 words)
- The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (50,776 words)
This is an excellent word goal for a new author. Your draft will require a lot of work afterwards. The fact that it is so short will be a boon, since I find that I usually need to add rather than subtract from the first, quick draft of a story.
However, most novels are actually 70k-90k words. Some longer sci-fi and fantasy novels can run over 120k words.
What is My Goal?
I will be setting my word count goal for 2021 to be 90,000 words.
This gives me a daily goal of 3,000 words. With past experience, I know that this translates to 1-2 hours of writing each day and that I will be able to find that amount of time most days in November.
What is Your Goal?
If you are following along and want to write along with me, the first thing you should do is join the NaNoWriMo website. The community there is fantastic and supportive.
Your next step is to choose a goal. If you have never written a novel before or are expecting a busy November, choose 50k words as your goal. If you do really well and surpass it, then you’ll feel much better than setting a goal of 200k and “only” writing 52k words.
If you’ve written before or want to set a different goal, let’s go through some calculations.
How Much Time?
First, how much time will you spend writing each day?
First, be realistic. Will you really write 5 hours every day? You might some days, but most people would find it hard to find that much time. Your job/school, health, and family & friends are more important than writing! Stay healthy and responsible.
On the other hand, be ruthless with your distractions. Take the time you’d spend watching a TV show, playing a video game, or reading a magazine and use it to write. Instead of watching an episode of Law & Order, spend that hour writing.
Also, use all your time! Any amount of time can be used to write. Waiting for a bus, another person, or an appointment. Even five minutes can get you a hundred words closer. Was traffic light and you made it to a meeting fifteen minutes early? That could be another hundred words.
Let’s say that you think you can find 90 minutes to write every day, plus an extra hour each day on the weekend. You will be visiting family for Thanksgiving, so are no planning on writing that day at all. However, you are off that Friday, so you will count it as a weekend day.
How fast do you write?
Most people have done some sort of typing test. This information is useless. The slowest part of writing a novel is usually not your fingers, but your brain.
Writing fiction, most people can compose at a speed of 18-20 words per minute once they are in a groove. When beginning a story, it is always slower.
Let’s say you will be planning and prepping for you novel, and you feel confident in maintaining an average speed. We’ll say you write 19 words per minute.
Words per Day
With these speeds and times, you can expect to write 1,710 words on weekdays and 2,850 words on weekend days.
Calculated Goal
There are 10 weekend days (9, plus Black Friday) and 19 weekdays (not counting Thanksgiving). This gives you (1,710 x 19) + (2850 x 10) for a total of 60,990 words.
Your goal should then be 60k words for this year.
Let me know what your goal is for this year and join us on the NaNoWriMo website and forums.