if later on you want to return to the first one, that’s fine (and you got 20k words to work with)
if not, that’s also fine
just write what you want to and have fun with it
I’m not a gr8 writer or a gr8 tip writer so sorry I chime in but I did this with my last NaNo. Before last year I mostly had positive experiences and always managed to finish with my original idea and even last year I thought I had that shit down but about 15k words into the story I just wasn’t feeling it and I kept eyeing this other idea I had.
I felt a little guilty and like I was giving up but I just switched mid-NaNo and then it turned out great and I had fun the whole time doing it. I would’ve regretted sticking with the first story and I’m glad I didn’t even though I still plan to finish it at one point.
A few weeks back, I blogged about adjusting your daily word count goal in November, because it just isn’t reasonable to expect to write 1667 words a day every day that month.
Your daily goal should fluctuate to represent your personal schedule and daily needs. Pacemaker is a word count calculator that will do all the pesky math so you create a November calendar with daily goals to do exactly that.
You start by inputting the basic information: your total goal, your start date, and your end date. This alone would give you a daily goal of 1667, but this is just the start.
Next, Pacemaker gives you options for strategies. You may want to work at a simple, steady pace, but you’re not limited to that. If you haven’t been writing for a long time and want to ease into it again, you can chose to let your daily goal grow as the month goes on. If you’re going to be busy at the end of the month, you can chose to do more work in the beginning of the month. It’s totally up to you and your schedule.
Pacemaker also accounts for weekends, and you can chose to do more or less on them, depending on your availability. You can also input specific dates when you know you can do more/less work. If you’re busy on Mondays, have Pacemaker skip them. If you have a lot of free time on Thursdays, make those “push!” days. Finally, you can account for a few emergency days, those days when you expect to write, but find yourself unable to for some reason or other.
Once you’ve accounted for your strategy and schedule, Pacemaker lets you see your month in the form of a calendar, chart, or graph. You can set up an account and track your writing on the website itself (in which case, Pacemaker will adjust your daily goals depending on how far behind or ahead you are), or simply print out or write down your daily goals.
Pacemaker is a wonderful tool for writers–whether you’re participating in NaNo or drafting on your own schedule. Try it out here.
This also sounds like a great tool if you want to catch up by a certain date. Thank you op!
Pass Through Fire 