5 Weird Word Count Tricks to Hit 50,000 Words in a Month

Note: This post originally centered on NaNoWriMo, but the word count tricks work for any writing challenge or fast draft goal, like the Rough Draft Challenge by Heart Breathings. Enjoy!

If you have known me for any small amount of time, you know that I'm a writer. It's just who I am. So naturally, writing 50,000 words in one month for NaNoWriMo (AKA National Novel Writing Month) seems like a heck of a lot of fun and I'm all in. I've been participating on and off since 2014. I will not pretend that I have won all of the years that I have participated, but the great thing about NaNoWriMo is the worldwide encouragement and community behind writing books. It's a great event to help you get into the habit of writing daily.

In these eight years, I've come up with some funny word count tricks to help get more writing time in during the day. You are going to LAUGH, but also love, these hacks.

How do you write more words every day? Five Practical Tips

Tip 1: The "Bathroom Break"

During NaNoWriMo, every time you have to go to the bathroom, tell yourself you can't get your ass off the toilet until you have written three sentences. Now come on, don't pretend you don't use your phone in the bathroom. With how often we go to the bathroom during the workday, this is a quick way to get more writing in.

Tip 2: Add in a "Toddler Moment"

Everyone has tantrums every once in a while, including your characters. Sprinkle in at least one of these unreasonable tantrums to show your character's pet peeves, fears, or a moment of unprocessed trauma that they have to work through.

Tip 3: The "Commercial Break" Workout

Similar to tip 1, don't waste your time! Everyone needs a TV break every now and again, but don't let it make you into a writing sloth. During commercial breaks, do word sprints. And if you are Netflix binging? Pause halfway through an episode, write for ten minutes, watch the other half, write for another ten minutes, then start the cycle again.

Tip 4: Bribe Yourself

Met that word count goal during your last sprint? Coffee break time. Did you double the amount of words you did yesterday? Target run! You get the idea. The key though, is if you don't meet your goal - no coffee or Target for you. Keep yourself accountable and build trust in your abilities and self-control.

Tip 5: Art Mimics Life

As you move through the month, keep a notebook or section in your phone to write down the mundane things we need to do all the time, as well as life's surprises (hello, flat tire). Then, challenge yourself to incorporate these real-life scenarios into your novel to aid the plot. Maybe the protagonist meets their true love by helping them with their car trouble? Having these background pieces adds realism to your story and fluffs your word count.

Bonus Tip: If you are writing a fantasy novel, life challenges still apply!

If you are writing a fantasy novel, address how the regular day-to-day activities in tip five are adapted in your world setting. Are there taxes in your world? Are they used justly or fuel for corruption? Who manipulates the funds? Is the villain benefiting from this system or entirely separate from the government?

These kinds of questions can be worked through in my writer download, the Happy Story Bible. It's free, but you have the option to add a tip if you find it helpful!

What's inside the Happy Story Bible?

If you want a free tool to uncover the inner-workings of your world and characters and how these questions can develop the way your main character and side characters interact with the world, you can download the Happy Story Bible for free or add a pay-what-you-want tip for the download.

These are the exact worksheets I used for my flagship fantasy series, nearly 30 pages of content to help you to:

• Map your character's motivations, fears, and emotional arcs using the same charts from my original Character Mindset Planner (see comparison note below).

• Build your world's geography, politics, and magic system with dedicated brainstorming pages for each.

• Keep every invented name, location, and timeline detail in one place, so you're never scrolling back through old chapters to remember what you called that mountain range.

• Plan visually with Venn diagrams, timelines, and webbing maps for connecting characters and events.

Updated in 2026 to be fillable, rather than only printable to fill out by hand. Do what works best for your planning needs.

What's the difference between the Happy Story Bible and the Character Mindset Planner?

If you already have my free resource, the Character Mindset Planner, that is the character-only template. The Happy Story Bible includes most of the same character work, plus an entire second half for building your world: maps, politics, magic systems, timelines, and a dictionary for all those invented names you'll definitely forget by chapter twelve. If you are a contemporary writer, get the CMP instead. If you are a fantasy, paranormal, or sci-fi author, download the Happy Story Bible here instead.

Q: How many words a day do you need to write to finish NaNoWriMo?

A: 50,000 words across thirty days is 1,667 words a day, every day. For some people, they can write that in an hour. For slower writers like me, it can take several hours! But, if you miss a day, you'll need to double your word count the next day, or increase your average to above 1,667 to account for it over several days. You can do that math for your updated daily count by doing: (50,000 - Current Word Count)/Days Left in the Month. This is why the bathroom break trick exists, every bit helps.

Q: What should I do if I get writer's block during NaNoWriMo?

A: Writer's block is often a symptom of something else. Sure, sometimes you need to step back and do some novel planning to figure out why a certain part of the book isn't working for you. But often, it's an environment, health, or mindset need.

• Environment: Leave your home to write. I often have trouble when I write for too many days in a row at home because everywhere I look I see something I need to do (like laundry) and that distracts from creativity. Leave your home and suddenly, words are flowing.

• Health: Are you having enough water? Are you taking walks outside to move around your energy? Are you sleeping enough? You can't be productive if you are sacrificing your body.

• Mindset: Overwhelm and pressure can get in the way of creative work. When I'm feeling sad or like I'm not measuring up, my words don't come. Taking a moment to address those feelings, and understand they are just feelings and not 100% irrefutable truth is freedom. Focusing on how every view has an alternate perspective is a great way to start with sorting out mindset worries. Check out my book .Repeat After Me for more.

And those, lovely humans, are a few tips that help me reach my writing goals during NaNoWriMo. What NaNoWriMo tips do you have? Is this your first novel or are you a dozen deep?