Too often, I find that writers start motivational challenges like NaNoWrimo with enthusiasm and good intentions, but give up when they start missing their daily targets for more than a few days in a row…undermining their confidence and defeating the purpose of the original challenge.
If you need a motivational writing challenge with some flexibility, try checking out my 250, 500 or 1000 words/day challenge. I’m doing NaNoWriMo right now as a way of helping kickstart my middle grade novel….but I’m already falling a wee bit behind the “1666 wds/day” goal.
If I do end up having to bail out of NaNo, I’m vowing NOT going to get discouraged but am going to keep going, but try a lower wordcount instead.
To those of you with lots of writing time and don’t need these challenges: I envy you! 🙂 These days for me, paying work has taken priority and my non-contracted projects keep being pushed to the back burner. I find that wordcount challenges can help motivate me to get into the habit of putting in at least a little bit of time EVERY DAY on my novel-writing.
Some of you may snicker at my measley wordcount goals but for me, even 250 words a day is better than nothing at all.