Posted on October 27, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
Backwards NaNo – The Reward System
I discovered a new method of doing NaNoWriMo last year. In previous years, I just did what everyone else did and plugged along at my 1667 words a day. Sometimes it was more, and that was great but by the end of the month, I was always struggling to finish because there are always days you fall behind and then catch up is more difficult than you think.
I was talking to some people last year on the boards and a girl shared a plan she had to do a sort of reward system NaNo. I dubbed it the backwards NaNoWriMo last year, but it’s still the Reward System and it worked for me beautifully last year. I actually finished early which was a goal I had set before the month even took off. So what is the reward system and how does it work?
The premise of the Reward System is only having to write one single solitary word on day 30. Yep, you read that right. One word. How does that work?
Well, you will see (or if you have participated before you will know) that you usually start off quite strong in your writing. The words seem to flow, your story just seems to write itself. But somewhere around the third week, things seem a little less exciting. All of a sudden, you are seeing plot holes or you wrote yourself in a corner or you’re just plain sick of spending so much time in front of your computer (or notebook, or journal or alphasmart, etc. etc.) and now you’re really struggling to formulate those 1667 words everyday.
With the reward method, by the time this whole feeling kicks in and you’re struggling (day 16 or so) you are already writing less words than everyone else who is doing NaNoWriMo. Why is that? Because you got the vast quantity of words out during the first two weeks. Let me show you a break down of how many words you write each day on the reward method.
Word Quotas
Week One
- Day 1: 3346 (It’s day one! Just do it! And you can and will!)
- Day 2: 3216
- Day 3: 3101
- Day 4: 2986
- Day 5: 2872
- Day 6: 2757
- Day 7: 2642
Week Two
- Day 8: 2527 (This is the hard part. Week one is out of the way, but you’ve still got some painful quotas left. Just do it!)
- Day 9: 2412
- Day 10: 2298
- Day 11: 2183
- Day 12: 2068
- Day 13: 1953 (Almost there…)
- Day 14: 1838 (Almost there……)
Week Three
- Day 15: 1724 (Halfway point! After this, you’ll be writing less every day than everyone else! This is the time where you need this!)
- Day 16: 1609
- Day 17: 1494
- Day 18: 1379
- Day 19: 1264
- Day 20: 1150
- Day 21: 1035 (Less than a thousand words a day after this! And everyone else is struggling to catch up and still write their 1667 words per day!)
Week Four (best time to enter all the word wars you can get, because they will come in SUPER handy with these word counts!)
- Day 22: 920
- Day 23: 805
- Day 24: 690
- Day 25: 576 (That’s a single good Word War! Feel free to laugh at the people with over three times this quota today!)
- Day 26: 461
- Day 27: 346
- Day 28: 231
Week Five
- Day 29: 116
- Day 30: 1 (Aww yeah! One word left! Make it a good one! )
32 Comments
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Trackbacks/Pingbacks
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October 28, 2011
[...] 50K words equates to 1,667 words per day. That isn’t nothing but should be do-able. Nicole at It’s All About Writing, suggests writing more to start with, when you’re still keen, then building it down so that the last day of November, you only have to write one word! It sounds reasonable. Check her post here. [...]
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October 31, 2011
[...] I stumbled across this blog post, which has given me a great idea for keeping that motivation going. It’s all about setting up a [...]
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November 3, 2011
[...] can be done by writing 1,167 words a day, every day, for a month. This year, my friend Jean put a blog post she’d read on her Facebook page about doing NaNo backwards. The idea is to start with high [...]
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October 24, 2012
[...] and fast-drafting. (I already have an outline! But the details still need a whole lot of work) Backwards NaNo: The Reward System: Making NaNo work by writing fewer and fewer [...]
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October 24, 2012
[...] http://nicolehumphrey.net/backwards-nanowrimo-the-reward-system/ [...]
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October 28, 2012
[...] the 1667 words/day pace to hit 50k in 30 days, I’m going to look at doing something more like Backwards NaNo (mostly because Fuck it, it’s not like my current method actually works for me or [...]
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October 31, 2012
[...] Läs mer om hur det fungerar här! [...]
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November 1, 2012
[...] good start. Eleven hundred words written and we’re only four hours into NaNo. I’m doing backwards nano this time [...]
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November 1, 2012
[...] consider front loading your words. Motivation is high in the first week or two so capitalise on it. Nicole Humphrey recommends this schedule… Week One Day 1: 3346 • Day 2: 3216 •Day 3: 3101 •Day 4: 2986 [...]
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November 1, 2012
[...] doing the NaNoWriMo Rewards System this year, with a few modifications. Every Wednesday I’ll be working on The Jade Star of [...]
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November 2, 2012
[...] am attempting Reverse Nanowrimo this time. The first week will be killer for me. I’m doing this because I KNOW that towards the [...]
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October 27, 2011
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Kirsten said:
This is EXCELLENT. I don’t know if I’ll have the scheduling flexibility to follow it exactly, but if my math is right by end of week three you’re through around 36,000 words — that would be a good goal no matter what technique you use!
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October 27, 2011
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Kelly Gamble said:
I think you all are crazy! But it is a crazy I envy. Good luck!
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October 27, 2011
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Becky in NH said:
I would love a copy of your calendar, and intend to give this a try this year! Also, gonna sub to your blog, I like what I’m reading! Good luck with your novel this year!
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October 27, 2011
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Rita said:
Sounds a good way to go – I’m not always brilliant on the staying power front so I think I’ll give this a go.
Your calendar sounds great as well.
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October 27, 2011
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Leeswammes (Judith) said:
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing. I may try this.
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October 27, 2011
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Meagan said:
This is actually really motivating for me. I will be a NaNo virgin this year, and I was starting to get stressed out by some of the horror stories I had heard. I think I’m going to start right out with this method. Thanks for sharing, and good luck! MMF
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October 27, 2011
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Gilly Fraser said:
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant – this idea is absolutely inspired. I’m also a NaNo newbie, but I’m hoping my many years as a Journalist will make the deadlines work for me instead of against me. I really like the sound of this scheme – though I might just tweak it slightly and save two words for the last day – THE END!
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October 27, 2011
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Kent Whittington said:
I did something similar to this last year, but with a much higher word count to start, and wound up finishing about ten days before the deadline. I had more time than I do this year, as my vacation days are shorter this time (I take a week off every year for the kick-off, but lost two of my seven days this year due to illness) so I think this might actually be a better method for me this year. Thanks oodles!
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October 27, 2011
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Sam Webb said:
What a great plan! Our end of the month gets crazy what with Thanksgiving, Nutcracker rehearsals picking up pace, and oh yeah – my birthday. It would be wonderful to feel a little more relaxed near the end. Thank you!
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October 27, 2011
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Moonshade said:
It’s an interesting idea in theory, but I suggest a tweak for those who aren’t ready to commit– or who find it hard to keep up steam after that first week.
I’d go with the schedule you posted for the first week, or until you run out of steam. After that point, when the steam’s fallen, just do the 1667. After churning out more than 3k in a day, it should feel like a snap, and you’ve already got such a huge head start that there’s not nearly as much pressure as there was before.
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October 28, 2011
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Nerine said:
I found a thread this morning that did talk aboutt this system, so it is definitely going to be used again this year. I’m thinking about using it myself as well, especially since I will have to take some days off, so working having less to write at the end will give me a great opportunity to catch up. ^^
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October 29, 2011
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Lewinna Solwing (@LewinnaBSolwing) said:
This is a cool idea
For NaNoWriMo I start with a goal of writing 2500 words a day. I get it most days, and so I know I have a buffer for those days when I inevitably fall behind or even miss a day. It has served me well and gotten easier over the years, too. I’m definitely a fan of getting a large chunk done early… much less stressful that way!
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October 30, 2011
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Dee Bibb said:
I think this is a fabulous idea!! If you check out my blog…you will see that this is officially my second year for Nano…but I didn’t make it very far that first year…way back when NaNo first began.
I was thinking of something along the lines of what you have scheduled…just hadn’t gotten it written out.
I would LOVE to have a copy of this calendar!!
You are my hero!!!!
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October 30, 2011
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Candice said:
I am also a first timer with NaNoWriMo, and I’m so excited! This is a great method, and I’m definitely going to try this way right out the gate. I have added the word counts to my calendar for goals. Since I’m new, everyone please find me on the NaNoWriMo site and we can all be buddies! I am cheshirescribe.
Good luck everyone!
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November 3, 2011
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Sarah said:
I’m on my seventh NaNo this year!
I’ve started out with a version of this for the past 2 years and it works well for me. I like to get ahead of myself in case of emergencies, family illness etc. To follow your word targets is only really a small stretch.
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October 22, 2012
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Ann said:
Just curious as to how you figured out the word counts (would like to adapt this technique to different total word counts/number of days).
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October 24, 2012
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Chantal Halpin said:
I’d love to be able to do it like that, but sadly I think I’m one of the people that will struggle to have time for the 1667 words a day. I’ll still give it a go though.
Good luck
Chantal Halpin recently posted..Sci-Fi-Fan-Sat
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October 28, 2012
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Jonathon Barton said:
I dropped this into a spreadsheet.
I’m glad I did.
It’s only 46899 words total on 11/29, leaving the 30th to make up the difference of *3101* words. =(
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October 28, 2012
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Ann said:
Sounds like you managed to skip November 3rd which is exactly 3101 words. IT works fine in my spreadsheet. November 29th is up to 49999 words as it should be.
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October 29, 2012
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Nicole Humphrey Cook said:
Thanks Ann, I ran it too (again) and it came up right for me. I plopped it into a spreadsheet AND used a calculator before even posting this originally. LOL
Jonathon I think you probably forgot Day 3.
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October 31, 2012
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Jonathon Barton said:
It does look that way.
Weird.
I managed to make the exact same mistake *FOUR* times.
* Adding it up in Calculator.
* Creating Daily entries in Google Calendar.
* Adding it to an Excel Spreadsheet
* Adding it to a Google Spreadsheet so I could share the love.