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Setting targets

The secret of winning NANO – going through that 50K barrier before time runs out on day 30 – boils down to setting targets and achieving your goals.

The NaNoWriMo barchart plots your daily progress

Under the Stats tab, you’ll see this.

Right now, it’s showing nothing as we’ve not started yet. But, during November, each time you enter your word-count-to-date, the stats bar chart tells you how you’re progressing.

• If you’re on schedule, writing your 1666 words per day,  it’s good to see today’s column above the target line.
• If you’re slipping behind, it can be depressing!

In Scrivener, before I stop writing for the day, before I report back to NANO, onscreen reminders encourage me not to stop until I have reached the goal for today.

How? Easy!

Setting a target for the whole project

Here’s how to set a target to write 50,000 words in 30 days:

• Select Project / Show Project Targets.
• Overwrite the second 0 under the Manuscript Target display with the value 50000 (or however many words you hope to write).
• Click on the Apply button (bottom right).

Setting a target for today

Setting a session target is simple too:

• Click on the Options… button (left of Apply) and a new dialogue box appears.
• Enter the deadline date as 30/11/2016.

Notice the first tick box; this means that only words in documents that would be compiled are counted. That’s everything in your Manuscript folder and nothing from your Research folder (unless you’ve amended the standard Compile settings!).

Notice also that the default setting is that the session count will reset at midnight. Perfect for NANO?

I write every day, but you can program Scrivener to give you days off. It will mean you have to write more on the other days!

Target notifications? I’ll explain to them once we’re into November.

Scrivener, my nag buddy

To win NaNo, I need to write 1666 words a day. If I fall behind (or get ahead!), Scrivener recalculates the rate per day for me.

When I click OK, Scrivener works out that if I were to start writing today (not allowed!), I’d have a target of only 1250 words a day.

Once NANO starts, I’ll illustrate how Scrivener displays my progress using coloured bars, and tell you more about the target notifications.

Online NANO encouragement: free webinars

Just like last year, I’ll be hosting a series of free webinars, especially for those of you who can not get along to the live events with your local ML.

Here’s my schedule. Click on each date link, and then choose your time, to register your place. Places are limited so please book early.

• KICK-OFF on Monday 24 October 2016: 10.30am, 2pm and 8pm BST
• MIDWAY on Tuesday 15 November 2016: 10.30am, 2pm and 8pm GMT
• TGIO celebrations on Friday 2 December 2016: 2pm, 6pm and 9pm GMT

Each webinar lasts about an hour. There is time for a brief presentation on what NANO is all about, a walk-through of the NANO site, and an opportunity for all questions to be answered.

What will on the menu on Monday 24 October?

• How NaNoWriMo works
• Where inspiration comes from .. and how to tap into your creative mind.
• Tips on time management and survival

And, if you would like me to keep you up-to-date with NANO related news – click here.

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