Here is my NaNoWriMo words-per-day calculator. If you’re reading this on my site (as opposed to RSS) and we’re still in November 2009 you should see the calculator on the left hand side of the page. It’s called nanocalc [UPDATE - a decade later - this is a wistful memory now, along with the snows of yesteryear. There must be millions of these now. If you really want one, though, ping me on Twitter and I’ll whistle one up and add it here. I bet no-one does though.]. It accepts your current wordcount, the number of non-writing days you would like to award yourself, and then it simply tells you how many words you’ll have to write daily to make the magic 50k.
When it comes to wordcounts and deadlines I’m a incorrigible maker of bargains. When my resolve just implodes and I contemplate abandoning a day’s writing I need to know my potential cost in words-per-day. How much harder will it become to make that quota?
Of course you can use it if you’re ahead of the game too. When I have words in hand I begin to wonder if I can afford to take a day off later in the month (the Thanksgiving weekend trip to LA springs to mind). So if I take one day out, what will my daily quota be? Make that two days? OK, maybe I can manage on one day.
Back when I introduced myself and this site I said I might offer up the occasional bit of software in the same spirit that people bring in homebaked cookies to share around in the office. This is my first such offering. Enjoy.
