Hey there,

By the time you read this, the first full day of November will have passed. Whether you joined us at the kickoff party, joined on the Discord, joined some other November novel-writing challenge group, joined a write-in, or just wrote in the comfort of your own home—even those of you who planned to start right on the first but life came up—know that you have embarked on a journey that many talk about but never actually do.

Now imagine this: On day one, you had a blank page, a clean slate, ready for you to fill it with your words. On day 30, you’ll have nearly a full manuscript! And that’s because you’ll write more on the second day, and then yet more on the third, more still on the fourth… and so on. You may be the type who writes extra during the week so they can take the weekend off. Or perhaps you’re the type who runs marathon writing hours over the weekends to free up your week. Maybe you’re the type who goes to three to four write-ins a week and the only time you write is at said write-ins. Where and when you write isn’t so much what matters. It doesn’t matter how much you write. It doesn’t matter when you start or even, ultimately, when you finish. What ultimately matters is you took on this challenge. Everything you write during this challenge are words you likely wouldn’t have had in your manuscript without DenNoWriMo. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a win in and of itself!

But this is a challenge: write 50,000 words in 30 days. While I may believe ***any*** and all writing is a win during this month, in terms of the actual challenge, ya gotta write 50k words to win. So, let’s break that down.

Did you know that 50,000 words in 30 days means that if you write only 1,667 words each day of the month, you’ll hit 50k on day 30? How’s that for some pretty sleek math? Just five years ago, there was a study on how much the average person wrote on social media each day. Believe it or not, that total was 1,869 words per day, on average, by the average person. This is how I know it’s absolutely an attainable goal for the average person!

That’s not to say there won’t be bumpy roads ahead. This is my 20th November writing 50,000+ words. I have actually won this challenge every year. Some years were by the skin of my teeth, clocking in the 50,000th word at 11:58 PM on November 30. One year, I hit 50k on day 10 (finished the novel on November 25 at just over 105k words). One year, I decided to take on the 50k in 5 days challenge and hit 50k on November 5. I know a lady from the NaNoWriMo Facebook group who made a crazy goal of 1 million words in 30 days—and she hit it.

I tell you this not to set unrealistic expectations, but to let you know that you can do this. Yes, there are some people who only make it to 10k or 20k. Yes, there are some people who stop after a week or two. Yes, there are some people who write for one single day and don’t go on because it feels too hard. They’re not necessarily wrong—writing a book isn’t so easy a caveman could do it (thank you, Geico). The second week is especially hard. But it’s hard for pretty much everyone. The excitement of the start of the month wanes and you’re left staring at your words thinking there’s no way you can do this. Attendance at write-ins often drop in the second week, too, as people either stop writing or think they can’t make it to the goal so why should they continue to try…

Here’s the thing: You took the first step… you started to write. That is, ultimately, the most important thing. Now, you need to keep it up. It has been proven time and again that people who attend write-ins—whether in-person or virtually—are must more likely to succeed and reach their goals. Too many of us believe writing is a solitary practice, and while that’s true of the actual word composing part of writing (unless you’re collaborating, of course), writing is better done with community. Especially when specific goals are in mind, like those of this November challenge. There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when you’re scrolling on social media and you hear the click-click-tap-tap of your fellow writers typing away around you. I mean, there’s something to be said for peer pressure!

If you’re at a write-in and you’re struggling to focus or struggling to find motivation, I guarantee you aren’t alone. One thing you can do is ask if those with you would be interested in doing some word sprints. Having a specific amount of time to write does something to internal brain chemistry, allowing the brain to focus for that amount of time. Now, if I’m being fair and honest, I’ll say that doesn’t work 100% of the time, but it does much more often than not (and I speak from personal experience—ADHDers unite!).

I am now going to assign you a task and I really hope you will all fulfill this task. I want you to go to at least one write-in this week. It doesn’t matter if the write-in is in person or if it’s virtual. It doesn’t matter if it’s a DenNoWriMo write-in or one of our partners or even another November challenge. What ultimately matters to us is that you write.

But now I’m going to stretch this task a little further.

I am tasking each of you with attending at least one write-in each week of November. You will thank me afterward.

While we’ve likely all heard the platitude of “if it were easy, everyone would do it,” especially around writing a novel, I know that sometimes a phrase like that which is meant to be motivation and inspirational can fall flat. It can inadvertently put negative thoughts in your head. So I’m going to take that phrase, specifically about writing a novel, and turn it on its head: writing a book may not seem easy, but every single human has within themselves the capacity for story-telling. Writing a novel is simply taking those stories that already live within you and re-homing them into book form. Now, suddenly, that doesn’t seem so daunting, does it?

I’ve said for decades that you can always edit a terrible page, but you can’t edit a blank page. I still stand by that. Just write. Your first draft is supposed to be terrible. I promise you. Don’t get caught up on making sure you tell the story exactly perfectly right out of the gate. Don’t get lost in the transactional aspect of novel writing. Don’t focus on grammar. Just write. You can go back later and fix the plot holes, the improperly placed commas, the misspelled words… but November is not the time for that. November is the time for the so-called typed “finger vomit” of words. Get them out. Make them pretty later.

I believe in each and every one of you. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have co-founded DenNoWriMo.

Now, stop reading this slop and go work on your novel. You’ve got this—I promise.