November is never the best month for doing this. We have other commitments, work, school, some of us have long holiday weekends that are reserved for family and/or friends and usually cannot be spent writing.
November is not the best month for me this year either. My best friend is coming over for the long weekend at the beginning of the month and I have final certification process at my coaching school for the four days in the middle of it.
On the other hand, I would probably find every month to not be good enough if I was given a choice. But since I can’t argue with the time, I have to make it work despite of the difficulties.
So, what can help?
1) Scheduling
- Put your writing time into your calendar, write it down as an appointment, and protect that date as if you would if you were going to the doctor.
- Plan for the whole month — you can break it down into daily or weekly goals (I prefer weekly, because I have an inconsistent work schedule and it gives me time to catch up), but make a plan. Seeing how four days of not writing at all may leave you way behind on your wordcount can be a cold shower and additional motivation to not skip any day you don’t have to skip.
- Schedule for the off days, because they will happen.
2) Take care of your people
- Explain to them how important it is for you.
- Make sure to spoil them a little before November. 😉
- Make time for your closest people anyway — you can’t tell your kids and partner that you won’t give them any time.
- Schedule that time as well if you have to.
3) Be good to yourself
- Eat good food. It’s great to eat your favorite junk food every once in a while, especially when you’re too busy to cook or microwave, but you have to survive to the end of the month. Eat good food.
- Challenging yourself is one thing, but hurting yourself is another. Give yourself a break when you don’t have energy to even sit, not to mention write.
- Reward yourself — whenever you achieve a milestone, give yourself a prize. Whether it’s for reaching certain wordcount (5k, 10k, etc.) or for catching up with the wordcount you were supposed to be at, give yourself a prize. If you are one of those crazy impressive people who write 50k in a weekend or something like that, you should definitely reward yourself, too.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just do whatever you can to make it easier on yourself. It’s supposed to be fun, after all. 🙂