Not to scare you or anything, but – There’s Ten Days to Go!
There are ten, yes 10, days left in the NaNoWriMo event. For those who have ploughed ahead with great focus and commitment, and have met the target, well done!
Fifty thousand words isn’t a huge amount in the scheme of things, the average novel is between 80,000-100,000 words. It’s not simply the amount that can be intimidating, but the time in which you produce it. One month, thirty days. Not long at all, especially if you work, have family commitments, or attend a weekly club. It all eats into those ‘precious’ minutes.
Ten Days to Go!
We had a visit one day from a couple of relatives. Like most sane individuals, they work ‘regular’ jobs with regular hours. They have weekends to do whatever they want, so they do not understand that, even though I have had a full morning to write, I desperately need the afternoon too.
You see, I can’t type fast. In fact, I’m not trained, so I tend to use only the first two fingers of both hands – occasionally dipping into the ring finger for the letter ‘A’. Even if I could type faster, I can’t do it continuously all day long. I have been known to slam out thousands of words in a day, when I am deeply involved — in the zone, as sports people say. But I can’t keep this up day after day and often sit staring at the screen internally screaming ‘Get on with it!’
Ten Days to Go!
Studies have shown that attention spans vary according to age, with younger people (this surprised me) having the longest. There has been some surprise in education quarters when told that information cannot be processed after a certain period and that talking to students should last no longer than 10 to 15 minutes. Attention depletes after this period and so nothing is going in.
I imagine that authors who have been writing for many years, like all creative types, have learned to focus attention and have therefore been able to expand this span over longer and longer periods. The average human attention span is now said to be… 8.25 seconds, (some of you have become bored already and stopped reading).
The average attention span for 16 years plus, is said to be 32 to 48 minutes. Let’s say one needs a break from it every half hour, perhaps, make that 10 minutes, that removes 1 hour and 20 minutes, in an 8-hour day you could write for 6.66 hours. If you can write nonstop, without loo breaks, tea breaks, or lunch, that’s a lot of words. But unless you’re a machine, that ain’t going to happen.
Ten Days to Go!
Which is why aiming for 50k in this month-long event is a challenge. One does not rewrite, one does not edit, and one does not do research in the middle of writing. Nothing else is meant to happen except a great outpouring of words. Sometimes, the way you have arranged those words will not make sense. Sometimes you will write a scene that will never make it to the final cut. Often, and most commonly, you will have a horrible sensation of incompleteness or rigidity as each day dawns and another one and a half k words need to be unloaded into your machine or book.
At the stage I am at, if I can write 1.5k a day until the end, I can make it. If I can overcome the two sticking points in my story, I can make it. If I can make sense in my head of what I have written so far and add to it, I can make it. If I knuckle down on those days when I don’t work and slam out more than the daily requirement, I can make it.
Ten days.
The clock is ticking.
You can make it too!
Good luck!
Flailing Through Life 