Political elections aren’t the only things that happen in November. There’s Veteran’s Day, the big holiday of Thanksgiving, the kick-off of the holiday shopping season, and the end of Daylight Savings time.
November is also National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which is a big deal for writers of fiction. The challenge of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000-word novel in just 30 days! Talk about pressure!
I think of November as a ‘short month’. You really only have two or three weeks where you can get serious work done depending on whether Thanksgiving comes early or late. This year, it falls on the fourth Thursday so you potentially have three weeks to achieve a big writing goal.
I like to create achievable goals and reward baby steps so I won’t challenge you to write your entire first draft by Thanksgiving. Instead, I challenge you to start and finish one writing task. It could be one chapter of your book, one blog post, or one newsletter article. Aim for 800 – 1000 words. Even for blog posts, Google now rewards longer posts with more search engine love.
Start by creating a game plan:
- Decide what you’re going to write: Blog post, article, or chapter
- Create calendar block appointments to designate specific times you will work on your project.
- Use the early time blocks to research your topic. Create a folder in your repository of choice so that you can keep all your research in one place. I like Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, or One Drive so that it’s accessible from all my devices.
- Create accountability. Announce your plan to friends, family, or followers.
- Use the later time blocks to draft, edit, find images if needed, and publish.
Refer to a post I wrote about lessons nonfiction writers can learn from NaNoWriMo for more tips. If you really want to get ambitious and write your entire book, there is a challenge group on Facebook you can join.
If the thought of writing even 800 – 1000 words feels like too much pressure try one of these goals instead:
- Plan and write your social media posts for November and December. They are prime months to grow your following, build buzz about your upcoming book, or invite people to purchase your published book.
- Create a cheat sheet, worksheet, or tips guide you can use as a giveaway to attract subscribers to your list.
- Dictate instead of writing. Pick your favorite recording app and spend a few minutes each day talking about your topic. Have them transcribed later and use them as a starting point.
- Speaking of audio, another alternative is to create some podcast episodes, especially if you haven’t launched it yet. You can get a few episodes ‘in the can’ prior to your launch.
- If you have a blog that’s a few years old, revisit some of your older posts and refresh them with new information. I guarantee not all of your subscribers have seen them and it’s much easier to start with an established post.
Regardless of which one of the ideas above you choose, you will experience a sense of accomplishment and maybe gain some momentum for 2021!
