Hey everyone,
One of the reasons freelance journalism has always been such a good fit for me is because I’m a perfect personality fit for the work.
I love learning new things and getting to speak to experts who personally answer questions I have.
I’m easily bored, I love a new challenge, and I enjoy working on several different projects at once.
When it comes to books, however, a project can take weeks and months, sometimes years. Therefore, I have to find my own ways to keep myself inspired, motivated, and entertained.
It’s why I come up with so many challenges, many of them not entirely sane. Long-time readers may remember 15 Days, 15 Deadlines, a project in which I finished up 15 stories in 15 days for 15 different publications, during the ninth month of my pregnancy. (I don’t recommend this, by the way. I pushed it too far and had my laptop confiscated.) There’s also 30 Days, 30 Queries, which led to the course and an entire business. And of course, who can forget 90 Books in 90 Days, which while an utter failure as a challenge, did lead to eight published books in a span of three months.
I signed up for NaNoWriMo this month. The goal of the challenge is to write 50,000 words in November. Since that’s exactly how many words I had left to finish on my latest novel, I thought it was perfect timing and jumped right in.
It’s on the NaNoWriMo forums that I came across this particular challenge and a NaNo tradition: 10k in a Day.
Of course, you know me, I have to jump right in.
The dirty details:
The Day: Friday, November 27
The 10k in 10 hours challenge traditionally happens on Black Friday. When the rest of the world is busy shopping, NaNoWriNo novelists get to work! Friday’s not the best day for me, especially this week, but that’s what makes this a challenge right?
Time Span: 10k in 10 hours
I don’t work “normal hours.” Instead, I work nights (until 3am), get up and take my son to school in what I consider the middle of my night, and then come home and sleep for a few more hours before starting my day. Therefore, my challenge will start at 12 noon instead of 12 midnight.
Project: Novel/Blog Posts
This is the last week of November, which means that it’s also the last week of NaNoWriMo. There are two ways I expect this to go. Either I’ll have not finished my 50,000 words and can use this day to catch up and finish my novel. Or, more likely, given my progress so far, I’ll have already finished the book and can use this time to write blog posts for Medium and The International Freelancer. I’m also open to working on my next nonfiction book, so we’ll see where I’m at on the day and go from there.
Community: The Finishers
I have learned through hard, bitter experience that trying to do a project like this alone without any help or support, especially from people who get it, is more likely to lead to failure. And so I’m going to check in with my own community, The Finishers, during the day to make sure I have encouragement when I need it.
I did do a little practice run for this 10k in 10 hours challenge over the weekend and while I didn’t hit 10k, I did have a fabulous writing day and got over 8,000 words written on the novel. This gave me a confidence boost and has gotten me ever so close to finishing.
I’ll be tracking my progress hour by hour and I will come share the results of my little challenge with you in December.
In the meantime, here are some mindset shifts that I’ve been practicing that may also help you if you decide to undertake something similar (or do the Black Friday 10k in a Day):
- If you can write 1,000 words in one hour, you can write 10,000 words in 10 hours.
- It’s not 10,000 words, it’s 5 chapters. Or 10 blog posts.
- If you know what you want to write, writing it will be easier. Find clarity on what you want to say before you begin.
- The goal is not only to put words on the page; it’s also to enjoy the hours you spend doing it.
So, that’s it. I’m super excited about this challenge because win or lose, I’ll come away with lessons. And, of course, lots more words on the page than I’d have been able to write otherwise.
I’ll report on how it went once it’s all done and dusted.
Cheers,
Natasha