Words of Caution

When faced with the monstrous task of writing 50,000 words in 24 days (yes, I'd like to finish by Thanksgiving), I can feel overwhelmed at times.  But if I try not to think about the big picture and simply focus on what I am doing today, then it doesn't seem so... huge.  I mean, as I write this post at 8:00 on a Saturday morning, I have reached 12,702 words (and I haven't written anything yet today). 

I am learning many valuable lessons from this whole novel writing challenge. Don't get me wrong, I am still loving it. In fact I can't wait to see what happens next. But there are a few tricks I have learned that I want to share with you.

1. Don't Do not use contractions.  They only count as one word.  I must admit I do have to use some contractions in the dialogue or it would sound too formal and boring, but I try to use them sparingly.

2. Do not use hyphenated words either.  They, too, count as one word.  Ditch the hyphen, or use something else; you can fine-tune next month.

3. Write compound sentences because when you join them with a comma and the word "and" or "because," or "or" then you have added a word, and remember every word counts.

4. Try to write at a quiet time of the day when you have very few distractions.  What?  Sorry, I have to go...

*These suggestions are intended for fun only and in no way reflect a devil-may-care attitude by the author, nor do they aim to poke fun of anyone.  In a nutshell: please don't take this seriously.