I know many of us are planning for NaNoWriMo. I encourage you to set realistic goals and use NaNo to accomplish something meaningful for your book. If it’s 50,000 words, great! But maybe it’s a complete outline, or a Blueprint with a few scenes, or a specific number of scenes, or something else…
I would like to offer you a fun way to figure out how to set writing goals for your draft or revision. I have created a Writing Goal Calculator that allows you to enter the length of time you want to take to write your (average) length novel and get a formula to use for your writing goals. It is based on scheduling yourself for at least three blocks of time per week for your novel. One is for planning and preparation, one is for writing, and one is for editing/adjusting. If you schedule more than three blocks of time, each additional block is more writing. The word/scene count for your goal is how much you have to get done for EACH writing block (it excludes the planning and editing blocks) in order to meet your drafting goal.
I like to think of this as a concrete way to figure out how to get your draft finished. Choose Your Own Writing Adventure!