How to Write 10k Words in a Day

Goals are a great thing to have. They get you places and help you achieve wonderful things. But goals are not the only thing that you need…

A plan. Without a plan, goals might as well be nonexistent. Goals are motivators and they inspire you do do things you wouldn’t normally do (like write 10k in one day…), but if you don’t know how you are going to achieve your goals, then all those good intintions are going to fly right out the window.

*sigh* The mysterious, ellusive plan… That’s the only thing standing between you and a 10k writing day. You might think it’s motivation, inspiration, or the desire to sit yourself down and write, but it’s not. All you need is a plan. And I have one just for you.

Preparing to Write 10k

For so long I have tried to write 10k words in one day, but never succeeded. Until, just a couple weeks ago, I finally did it! I wrote 10k words in one project, in one day. I’m still amazed.

But what I never realized before when I tried this was that I was missing what I needed most of all. A plan. This is many other writers problem as well. They fail to prepare ahead of time just as I did. There’s not much to the preparation, but if you take the time to do it ahead of time, it will make all the difference.

The difference between succeeding, or failing.

#1: Prepare your meals

Let’s face it, meals take up a lot of our day. Planning them, preparing them, and then taking the time to actually eat. It’s time consuming, and something we can easily plan ahead of time.

(No, you are not allowed to starve yourself, that is not my plan here. I already tried that one time I tried to write 10k in a day and, well, let’s just say I didn’t make it past breakfast. If you want to write this much, then you have to be nourished. End of story.)

Plan the day before what you are going to eat the next day and fix it up ahead of time if you can. Either do the prep ahead of time so all you have to do is throw it together or, go ahead and make it and stick it in the freezer. Either way is a great way to carve out more writing time and less time spent on food.

#2: Remove all distractions

Decide ahead of time what are your biggest distractions. Your phone? Social media? The book you’re currently reading? Maybe it’s several things. Create a list and then remove all of those things from view.

As human beings, we get distracted enough in a day, we do not need these added little bonuses taking our attention when we’re trying to write 10k words in a day. Be nice to yourself and take the time to do this ahead of time so that when you sit down to write you won’t find yourself distracted at every turn. For me, it’s social media. So the day I wrote 10k words in a day, I never got on Instagram once. I removed that distraction and the difference was noticeable.

I’ve heard that it takes you twenty minutes to get focused again after being distracted. If this is true, can you imagine how unfocused you’ve been all the times you picked up your phone for one second while writing? It’s insane to think about! And it makes me all the more determined to be purposeful about making my writing time more sacred and removing distractions from it. I want to be the most focused I can be while writing.

#3: Plan breaks

What? Breaks? Here I was just telling you to not get distracted and now I’m telling you to plan your breaks? Yes. Yes, I am.

Again, we are only human. We cannot sit down and crank out 10k words in one sitting. It’s simply not possible. (Unless you’re writing “I, I, I, I, I,” over and over and over again…) You have to take breaks.

So why not plan them? I have learned that I can have better success by planning them because otherwise my form of a “break” is getting on Instagram for a few minutes and, people, that’s not the ideal break.

When I say you need to take a break, it has to be something that will take you away from your writing for several minutes as well as refill your creative well. For me, this looks like taking a walk, taking a shower, reading a chapter from one of my favorite books, crocheting, or spending time with family. Those are a few of the things I have on my list to do when I take breaks. Any of these things would take me away from my writing and put me in a different head space, all of which is important when you need a refresher. So what would be something you can do on a break?

#4: Plan your rewards

Going along with the breaks is planning your rewards. Everyone is going to be more motivated to complete something if they know they have a reward waiting for them. Decide what would motivate you and how often you need rewards.

Some people might set a reward every few thousand or after so many minutes spent writing, while others plan one if they complete their goal for the day. A few reward suggestions could be a piece of chocolate, a rest period, reading a chapter of a book, texting a friend, going outside, or buying yourself something you’ve been wanting. Again, decide what would motivate you and how often you need to be motivated and plan for it.

Writing 10k in a Day

Now for the fun part! After you’ve done all the planning you feel is necessary for you to achieve this goal… it’s time to start writing.

Some writers might just sit down and start pounding out the words, and that’s great! But, for me, I still need a plan.

This is probably the simplest plan in this post, but it’s beneficial nonetheless. I actually just read the idea for this plan recently on another blog post (shout out to Aubrie Goble’s blog! You should definitely check it out and read all the awesome advice she has on there.). The plan goes as follows:

If you get up between 6-8am:
• 1k by breakfast
• 3k by noon
• 7k by 6pm
• 10k by 9-10pm

I’ve already changed this to fit my day better and you can do the same for however would work best in your day. But by reading that plan, I felt more confident that I could complete a 10k word day! And I did!

Do what you need to do to make this a reality for you. I believe you can write 10k words in one day, but you might have to create a plan first to make it possible. You can do this!

Your turn!

What was the most you have ever written in one day? Do you plan on trying to write 10k this NaNo? What helps you write a lot of words in one day?

Blessings, Allyson

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