Say you’ve already reached your word count for the day, and you’re only halfway through your writing session. Brilliant! That means you can take the rest of the evening off, right? It’d feel relaxing to have some time off after two weeks of NaNoWriMo pressure.
Don’t do it! As tempting as a little time off sounds, it’s a terrible idea!
You’ve just been handed a golden opportunity. If you find yourself in a creative headspace, where the words are just flowing through you and getting to 1,667 words feels easy, then you want to stay in that headspace. Keep going!!
Who knows what your final word count will be for the day. Hopefully a lot higher than normal. For each extra word written above 1,667, you’ve bought yourself a little breathing room.
With the best will in the world, there are days when the creativity doesn’t come; when the dreaded writer’s block sets in (or worse!). That’s probably going to happen to you at least once during NaNoWriMo. So writing extra when it feels easy is a form of insurance. It gives you breathing room for those harder days when you struggle to get to 1,667. In fact, any time that you can go over your daily word count, it’s a good idea to do so.
No-one likes to think that they’ll miss a day of NaNoWriMo. Still, writing ahead is a good way to to prepare for it. Just in case.
Keep writing! You’ve got this.
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