Want to Succeed? Set an Improbable Goal.

If you’ve ever considered writing a book, you may be aware that November is National Novel Writing Month – NaNoWriMo for short. NaNoWriMo is an online challenge to write the first draft of a 50,000 word novel in 30 days – a madcap goal that over 400,000 people attempted last year – and about 50,000 achieved.

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo for half my life. This largely self-imposed challenge has taught me a lot about being a writer and a dreamer, and even more about being an achiever. Sometimes I need an absurd goal to push me out of complacency. If you’re struggling to get your dreams off the ground, maybe you do too.

The Birth of a Lifestyle

I discovered NaNoWriMo my freshmen year at Amherst College, 18 years ago. (Oh how I wish that number was an exaggeration!) It was already well into November when my friend Iris mentioned this crazy book writing challenge she and her boyfriend were undertaking.

It was my dream to write a book. I had a concept I’d been mulling over for years, a fleshed out cast of characters and a plan to tear the solar system apart and then put it back together. But I’d never gotten further than a few chapters and an angsty English assignment or two. This crazy goal was the spark I needed to make my dream a reality. By the time I went back to my dorm room, I knew I was going to win NaNoWriMo and write my book. No more excuses.

The book I started that November was Phoenix Falling, the same book I’ve been rewriting for the fifth and sixth time during my writer’s sabbatical. Iris never got very far in her own book, but our conversation in our dorm hallway changed my life. When it’s finally published, Phoenix Falling will be dedicated to her.

Every year since 2004 I’ve taken the NaNoWriMo challenge. I admit that sometimes I bend the rules a little. There have been several years where I continued a previous project, adding on the next 50,000 words. (For context, most of my novels end up around 120,000 words.) There are years that I’ve taken on editing projects instead, committing to 50 hours of rewriting.

But every year I’ve achieved what I set out to do. No matter how hard it is. And it’s always hard.

Exhausting.

Draining.

Exhilirating.

The things most worth doing often are.

The Best Reward is Whatever You Want Most

“So what do you win?” people used to ask me after I told them I was writing a book in a month because of an internet challenge.

“Well, I can buy a winner’s t-shirt.”

“You have to buy the t-shirt? They don’t give it to you for winning?”

“Nope.”

This was often when they’d look at me pityingly. Then I’d tell them that I couldn’t hang out, because I was behind on my word count. I was always behind on my wordcount.

The thing was, I never cared about some prize. The reward for me was completing the challenge. Finally writing a book and proving to myself that I could be a novelist.

That’s the same reason I was nonplussed whenever someone asked how writers proved they won.

“There’s a wordcount generator that checks if you’ve reached 50,000 words,” I’d explain.

“But no one reads your book? What if you just pasted the same word 50,000 times?”

Another shrug and retreat back to my writing sanctuary. If someone cared enough to cheat on a challenge when the biggest prize was self-satisfaction, that wasn’t my problem.

People are motivated by different things. I’ve never been be particularly financially driven. This past year taught me that I’m willing to give up a lot of “stuff” for the lifestyle I prefer. I do care what people think of me. I admit it – I liked that people were impressed that I was achieving something they thought was crazy. I also avoid failure like the plague. Once I committed to myself that I was going to write 50,000 words by the end of the month, I was going to do everything in my power to get those words out of my head and onto my computer even though the only one holding me accountable was myself.

But my biggest motivator was that I wanted to write that book. I wanted to be a published novelist, and the first step was writing a novel. NaNoWriMo cut through the excuses. You’re too busy? Too tired? Too distracted? Well, hundreds of thousands of other wannabes are writing their book right now. Why can’t you?

If you want to achieve something great, you need to determine why, and keep that unflinchingly in mind when things get tough. Because unless your goal is too small, things are going to get tough.

Hard Work Is Kind of the Worst (Do it Anyway)

So here’s the only thing about NaNoWriMo that I don’t love.

It’s so hard.

Because you know what’s also in November — Thanksgiving. With a few days off but each one filled with family obligations, right at the time that panic hits because you’re desperately behind on your word count, and failure is looming. You kind of want to give up, but when your relatives ask how the writing is going you don’t want to admit – ‘eh, 37,000 words is good enough, I think I’m going to stop there and get a lot of sleep the rest of this weekend.

To be fair, plenty of people give up around this point. But I was never one of them.

When you sign up for NaNoWriMo you receive email pep talks from professional writers, and a lot of them talk about how the month is going to go. Week 1 you’re excited. You love your book, the writing flows, everyone is so impressed that you’ve taken on this challenge. But Week 2 starts getting harder. Maybe writer’s block hits, or you just haven’t carved out enough time to keep on track. (A little math – 50,000 words in 30 days equals 1,667 words per day, which seems totally doable until you fall farther and father behind, and suddenly need 2,000, then 3,000 and maybe even 5,000 words a day. There’s a graph that shows you whether you’re on track. It’s haunting.)

Week 3 is often when people give up. Because the goal seems insurmountable, so why keep torturing yourself? This isn’t fun anymore. It’s hard. You’re not winning, you’re losing, and doing just about anything else would be so much easier. Your back hurts from hunching over your computer, you haven’t said a single creative thing in the last 10,000 words, and you desperately want to sleep for more than 6 hours. Also, you’ve done no chores for like 19 days, so your apartment is a disaster and all your clothes are dirty. Plus every building you walk into is playing Christmas music and you do not have the bandwidth to even consider that to-do list you’re ignoring.

But, if you push through and make it to Week 4, then you’ll probably cross the finish line. You made it to the top of the hill, and now you’re just rolling down, picking up speed and excitement and words and the knowledge that soon you’ll be able to sleep again. And when you do finish that 50,000th word, victory is sweeter because it was so hard-won.

I think this is the same for any major endeavor. Starting out is exciting, but once the novelty wears off it’s easy to get overwhelmed and discouraged and give up. Chasing your dreams isn’t all unicorns and rainbows. Sometimes it’s the Week 3 slump. Even though I’ve loved being a full time writer this past year, there have been moments where the work seemed endless, the writing seemed bad, and I was utterly uninspired.

I showed up at my coworking space anyway, put my butt in my chair and stared at my computer screen until the words finally came. And every boring or painful moment was worth it because of the sum of what I was doing.

It’ll always be easier to stick to the same old routine. To put on Netflix or take that nap, rather than go out of your way to try something different. But at the end of the day, which will you remember? Which will matter? Do you want to be the hero of your own story? Or do you want to be a supporting character who gets left behind?

It’s Not About Quality, It’s About Reaching the Finish Line

One of the basic tenets of NaNoWriMo is to write fast, not well. You will never finish the Great American Novel in a month. That isn’t the point.

The point is to start what may, one day, become the Great American Novel. (And many have. Check out this list of 8 bestselling NaNoWriMo books, which includes Water For Elephants and The Night Circus.)

It may seem counterintuitive, especially if you’re a perfectionist like me. But the goal is to do the work, and not let quality get in the way. So often we’re overwhelmed by the need to do something right that we just don’t do it at all.

To be honest, every first draft of a book is imperfect, no matter how long you take to write it. But even a terrible draft is better than no draft at all. Because as soon as your story is down on the page, you have the potential to rewrite it over and over again until it becomes something magical.

Phoenix Falling wasn’t finished in 50,000 words. It’s taken 18 years and 6 or 7 rewrites to finish Phoenix Falling, and truth is it’ll probably go through at least 2 more rounds of revision before it’s published, and that’s the best case scenario. (Because any agent I sign will probably have suggestions, and the editor that buys it will definitely have suggestions) But after that first month, I was all in. I believed that I could write a book, and I’ve never waivered in that belief.

So this might be slightly harder to apply if you’re coming up with a business plan or launching a new product. I did this as fast as I could and it’s terrible is probably not something you should declare to potential clients or customers.

But the truth of NaNoWriMo is the book you write in a month is the beginning of your novel, it’s not the finished product. Everything needs to start somewhere. Write your business plan, celebrate that you’ve started, and then look at it again with fresh eyes. Tear it apart, write it again, take some time, think it through, revise, revise, revise. But don’t get stuck. Not during the first draft, but not after it either. As soon as you accomplish one goal, you need to give yourself another.

Routines Turn Dreamers Into Achievers

How does one write a 50,000 word book in 30 days?

By writing 1,667 words a day.

Or, more honestly, intending to write 1,667 words every day, but sometimes only managing 500, and other days writing 4,667 to compensate. By making writing a priority each and every day, because you know if you don’t try, you’ll have to pick up the slack tomorrow.

If you want to achieve something, you need to put in the work. And the best way I’ve found to put in the work is to do it everyday, until it becomes a habit, something essential that is harder to skip than to complete.

You can make plans and sometimes they won’t work out, but if you never plan to do something, you probably never will.

NaNoWriMo is a special case. It’s not enough–at least it never has been for me–to say, “Oh, I’m gonna get up an hour early every day to write and that will do it.” I have to write always, in every free moment, and somehow it all comes together with maybe 2 hours to spare before midnight on the 30th.

That pace isn’t sustainable. I love NaNoWriMo for just how much writing I get done. For the things I discover in the heat of the moment. All the stuff that seems creative when I reread it even though at the time it seems like uninspired rambling. I also love the relief of December 1st, when the pressure’s gone and I can do some chores and go Christmas shopping.

For me, one months of madness a year is enough to get my creativity racing and remind myself that I can write books–and do anything I put my mind to.

But if I want to get published, then the other 11 months need to matter. For 17 years I wrote more in the month of November then I did for the rest of the year. December through October was for being practical, for being good at my job, for giving to others and maybe churning out a few words every once in a while.

Now, those 11 months are for going to my coworking space 5 days a week and staring at my manuscript for hours, picking it apart scene by scene and word by word. I’m less manic, less sleep-deprived, but no less determined.

NaNoWriMo is a sprint, that taught me I could tell a story. But being a successful writer is a marathon I need to run every day.

A goal can get you started and prove to yourself that you are capable. But achieving one goal and leaving it at that won’t change your life.

Stretch Yourself or You’ll Atrophy

I have a confession to make. This year, 2022, is the first year I didn’t attempt NaNoWriMo since 2004. Ugg, I know. I feel lousy even saying it.

It just didn’t make sense. I was rewriting the final chapter of Phoenix Falling for the bazillionth time, and what I really needed to achieve that month was submitting my proposal to my first batch of agents. I just couldn’t figure out a way to work on 50,000 consecutive words when I was straddling projects.

So I didn’t. I kept up my writing routine. I finished the manuscript. I sent it out to 15 strangers. I started working on Phoenix Rising.

And every day I went home and relaxed. Thanksgiving break was really leisurely as I set my book aside for four days without guilt. And then I got COVID and it was fine because I could just sleep it off without needing to write 9,000 words in two days.

But here’s the thing. I missed NaNoWriMo! I missed the rush, the drive, the goal, the achievement. Even though I knew it made no practical sense I wanted to start a new project and write like crazy. I didn’t even peek at what the winner’s shirt looked like this year, because it would have made me sad.

And I know that next November, no matter where I am with Phoenix Falling or Phoenix Rising, I’m going to find a way to turn something into a NaNoWriMo goal.

Because even though I’ve gotten good at the routine I still sometimes need the push. Routines get stale. The magic feels lost.

If you want to rewrite your life then I recommend you start with a challenge. Something hard, but not impossible. Something that might seem crazy, but really isn’t. Something with a deadline and a tangible way to track your progress.

Once you set your challenge, tell people. The more the better. That way they can check in on you and there’s extra pressure to keep going. Social media has made this super easy, but don’t forget people you see in person, too. Think of those people who’d run through a wall for you. Take them to lunch and tell them what you’re about to do. It’s helpful to have cheerleaders.

Not sure you can do something? Why don’t you give yourself a month to find out?

And if you fail? That’s alright. You’ve accomplished more than if you didn’t try at all. See what you’ve learned. Tweak the goal. Try again.

Just keep moving forward.