Preparing for 1k-a-day

We're five days away from the 2nd semi-annual 1k-a-day here on YAedge. Are you prepared? For those of you who do NaNoWrimo every November, 1,000 words a day shouldn't be too hard, but don't take 1k-a-day lightly. To consistently write every day for a full month can become grueling. Here are a few tips to make sure that you're ready.

1. Know your story. I can't stress that enough. Try and write a rough synopsis or have some kind of map to follow on the days the words don't flow. Instead of staring at the blinking cursor, you will be able to move around your plot if you know your story.
   
2. Know your characters. Try to make note cards based on their characteristics so you don't spend a lot of time flipping through pages trying to find what color your main character's eyes are or what their favorite food is.
3. Be prepared to let the words flow. Don't worry about edits, the goal here is to write 1,000 words a day, not make them perfect. Editing is for August.
   
4. Motivation. If YAedge giving away books from our own home libraries for free isn't enough, why not make a deal with yourself. If you write 7,000 each week you can go out to dinner or buy a new book. Whatever works for you.
5. Get the word out. The more people, the more fun 1k-a-day will be. If you have a blog or website and want to share the info, please do! You can right click (or drag to your desktop if you're on a mac) the image above to advertise 1k-a-day (please be sure to link it back to http://yaedge.blogspot.com). Also, if it helps, you can blog about 1k-a-day, too! Feel free to post the links to your posts in your daily word count comments on YAedge.
6. Remember, the most important thing is to end up with 30,000 words by August 1. You'll have half a book written in just a month!
   

1k-a-day Rules and Contest Info

Tracy has announced YAedge's July writing challenge, now here are the rules! Those of you who participated in November of 2008 know what it's all about, but here's the info for the newbies.

1,000 words a day, no more or less (well, unless you’re on a roll and would like to bump up the word count…more on that later) from July 1-31. You may work on a book you've already started, work on something new or switch it up. We don't care, as long as it's 1,000 words or more. We'll be posting our word counts each day by 11:59pm PDT and we’d like you to do the same. Just post your word count in the comments section of each day’s post.

Now, down to the super cool part…free books. That’s right…FREE BOOKS! We'll be giving away YA books from our own collections at the end of each week.

"What do I do to win FREE books?" you ask. Just post your starting word count in July 1st blog post. It can be 0…it can be 40,000. We don't care. Whatever your word count is to start, we just need you to document it. From there, you can either post your word count daily, or by Friday evening. What is most important is your end word count each week.

For those of you who are unable to start July 1st, no problem! That is the beauty of 1k-a-day. We don't care about hitting an end of the month word count. It's all about your daily goal of 1,000 words!

This is where the overachievers come in. We will announce the winner who write the most words the previous week each Monday! We have a selection of books to choose from and will slowly “leak” the books up for grabs. How easy is that? Write a book…win a book!

Make sure to check the blog each day starting July 1st for inspiration and read our ups and downs of the challenge. Plus, you never know when we will decide to give a book out on a whim!

So, get your thinking caps on, your writing notes out and dust off your keyboards. Oh yeah, don't forget the coffee! It’s time to get down to business and write 1K-a-day! All of us here at YAedge are in the heat of the moment with our current work-in-progress and don’t want to put them down! The excitement is brewing. Make sure you don't miss it!

Don’t forget to post your word counts everyone. Make sure to tell all your writer friends and family. The more the merrier.

July 1st can't come soon enough! See you all then!