I Wrote 100k Words in 30 Days. Here's What It Was Like

As a challenge to myself in June, I decided I was going to write a full draft of the sequel to Magic & Murder in the Holler over the course of one month. While I've gotten into the habit of writing every day, I'd never written with a hard deadline before. I'd never completed anything like the NaNoWriMo challenge, where you try to write 50k words in November, and wondered how it felt trying to finish a project with such a tight deadline. I was curious to see if using such a strict writing schedule worked for me or not.

The draft I wrote in June was a second draft, so I benefitted from already figuring out a great deal of the plot and character arcs while writing the first draft. I also had something to refer back to when I ran into writers' block or forgot where I wanted to go next at any point. It did have the downside of my needing to fix problems from the first draft, however, such as big plot holes or inconsistent characters.

The draft wound up being 100,009 words, which translated to roughly 3,333 words per day. I try not to judge myself against other writers in terms of how fast they write, so I'll say that over 3,000 words in a day is a lot for me. I spent pretty much all of my free time writing, including most of my weekends, mornings before work, evenings after work, and sometimes my lunch break.

Would I do this again? No. This writing schedule doesn't work for me at all. By the time I finished, I felt incredibly burned out by this self-imposed challenge, despite how proud I am of the draft I wrote. I missed out on quite a few things as well, because I'd set this deadline of June 30th for myself, and I wish I hadn't had turn down invitations or even just spending time with friends, because I needed to meet my deadline.

It's been over a week since I finished the draft, and I haven't written anything substantial since. I like to write every day, but I don't like writing with a deadline. I enjoy revisions, but I like being able to take my time in working on them. I'm happy I challenged myself to do this, because now I know for sure that this style doesn't work for me.

I will see you next time!

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