: Re: How to juggle work and NaNoWriMo? I love to participate in NaNoWriMo, but this year for the first time I'll have a full-time job during November. Is it feasible to write less on weekdays and

@Frith254

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Do not put pressure on yourself by saying "Oh, I can write more at the weekend to compensate what I've missed during the week." You will throttle your motivation, you will strangle your creativity. You will get, what you fear most: writer's block.

Should you write in the evening and risk to get not enough sleep? Well, why do you think they call it "Thirty day and nights of literary abandon"? They mean it.

Don't do prep work, just write. That's what it is all about. Write when you find time. Learn to say "no" to people who want to interrupt. If there is no emergency (fire, injury), write!

How can you achieve your daily goal? First you have to define one. You have 30 days, 50,000 words to write. With a rough estimate of 220 words per page you have to write 7 to 8 pages per day.

Do that. Sit down in the evening and if you haven't written enough during lunch break, write till you have 8 pages. It doesn't matter what. If you think it does not make sense, keep writing. If you think it does not fit to what you wrote yesterday, keep writing. If you know for sure, that the world will laugh at you for this moronic nonsense you are producing, keep writing.

If you cannot make 8 pages for what reason soever, don't sweat it. Try to write 8 pages the next day. Do not try to add the missing pages to the work goal of the next day. The worst thing that can happen is, that you have on December 1st only 40,000 words written. Then you missed the goal, yes, but you have 40,000 words you would not have written otherwise.

Keep writing.

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