But wait a minute. Why would you need to buy yourself treats for NaNoWriMo? Isn’t winning a reward in itself? And it can’t really be that hard to write 50,000 words…can it? Yes, my sweet summer child. Yes, it can. You see, NaNoWriMo is an endurance challenge. You have 30 days exactly — from midnight on Nov. 1 to 11:59 P.M. on Nov. 30 — to write 50,000 words. That’s approximately 1,667 words per day, every day, for a whole month. And believe me when I tell you that problems will come out of the woodwork to stall your writing progress the moment you decide to throw your hat in the ring. That’s why a lot of Wrimos choose to use NaNoWriMo treats to motivate themselves. Pick a word goal, assign a gift to it, and buy that gift for yourself if you meet the goal. Your gifts don’t have to be extravagant. They just have to be enticing enough to make you keep at it. I strongly recommend focusing on the stretch between 20,000 and 40,000 words, simply because that’s where many Wrimos begin to doubt themselves, as Neil Gaiman points out in his NaNoWriMo pep talk from 2007. Ultimately, though, you should do whatever works for you. Need more NaNoWriMo treats to motivate you? Check out this list of gifts for Wrimos! Not enough motivation? These inspirational quotes from writers should do the trick.
