A NaNoWriMo Hack: Making Up for Lost Writing Time

A bit behind? A lot behind? It’s never too late! 

A couple years ago, I was living in China but needed to travel to Ohio for a wedding in which I was the best man. It was a good time getting to visit friends and family. The downside… I lost a lot of writing time. From my time back home, travel time, and doubling up my teaching load to make up for missed classes, I was sure to fall short of the 50K mark for the first time. 

Luckily, I had a three day weekend, and I decided to just write as much as I could. I wrote just over 10K on day 22, just before the last weekend of November. I had written 11K the weekend before, but there was no way I could do that in a day, right? 

Wrong. I put my kitchen timer next to me and wrote for 20 minutes, stopped for 20, and then got right back to it. I was impressed with my day, but even more that I ended up having three 10K days to put myself back on track. I now use a timer to focus myself when I write every November.

Justin is originally from a small town in Ohio. After getting degrees in English and Education, he has taught English as a Second Language in 3 different countries. He currently resides in South Korea and is the ML for the new S. Korea :: Elsewhere region.

Top photo by Flickr user barbourians.