How I Won NaNoWriMo 2020 in 9 Days

My motivation to win on a passion project and set a new personal record

Courtesy of nanowrimo.org

No, I’m not kidding. You can count my words over on Wattpad if you really want. I posted the rough draft as I wrote it.

There’s a method behind my madness — I promise it’s not just madness. 2020 marked the second time in three years that I’ve participated while being able to write full time. The first time was when I discovered the writing challenge in 2018. I front-loaded all of my grad school work and finished that before the month started which gave me the freedom to only worry about writing and a full-time job. This year I have the ability to write every day with only minor distractions like house hunting and a puppy.

Here is a breakdown of my word count:

1. 10,418 — it’s a Sunday. What else am I gonna do? My most daily words came in 2018 with 18K. I doubt I’ll ever get that close again.
2. 6,776 — I was actually disappointed despite my goal of writing 5K+ a day.
3. 7,727 — a more respectable number.
4. 7,208 — some chapters just don’t hit the same.
5. 2,740 — woof. This was day 1 of a migraine.
6. 5,086 — another migraine, but I drugged myself up at about 4:30AM and had a…