We are rapidly approaching the time of year when writers around the world embark on one writing challenge or another, with the most common writing challenges focusing on writing a minimum of 50,000 words within 30 days. Some of these challenges will extend to the idea of editing and publishing, extending the challenge out to 90 days. But the idea is still to write a lot of words, completing a long-form story within a short period of time.
To some writers, the whole challenge is a daunting task. But for many people who have never written before, embarking on the challenge can be freeing, as it encourages you to turn off the inner critic and just write! However, for many writers who have been writing for a while (myself included), such a challenge forces us to examine our writing habits—and sometimes, reset our routines.
Every year, I share my thoughts about how aiming for a high word count shouldn't be your ultimate goal. In my opinion, the challenge to write 50,000 words in a month is not really about writing those 50,000 words. It's more about developing writing habits that will carry you through into your future writing career.
With that in mind, we need to address certain practices that will help you write fast now but avoid the editing hell later.