NaNoWriMo Day 22

Wordcount: 45662
Words Written Today: 1362
Words I Still Need to Write Today: 305
Writing Music Obsession: Lindsey Stirling
Can you believe it's WEEK FOUR already? I can't; it seems like November is just flying by! I hope everyone's on track with their wordcount. If not, maybe this post will help: the topic is wordcount crawls. What's a wordcount crawl, you ask? Well, it's basically a series of writing challenges- word wars, word sprints, and so on- arranged in the form of a story. I like using them for a boost after I've accomplished part or all of my required wordcount for the day. The series of smaller challenges (and sometimes not-so-small challenges) really helps break down a lot of words into not-so-intimidating chunks. So, without further ado, here are some crawls I think are worth checking out.

1. The Dice Bag Mini-Crawl. This is a pretty easy crawl. It doesn't take super long- I finished the entire thing in under two hours, and I'm a slow writer. There also aren't many timed challenges, which is good for handwriters and slow typers. Also, the challenge amounts usually aren't too large unless you're very unlucky with your dice rolls. I got 1667 words out of it, but the amount can vary depending on what you roll and how far behind in your novel you are. It doesn't have much of a story, but I kind of like that; there's less to distract you. If you want to try it but don't have all the dice, you can use this virtual dice-roller, which seems to work pretty well.
2. The RPG Crawl. This is probably my favorite of the wordcount crawls I've done, as well as the only one I've done twice. It's difficult, but not too much, with some nice variety in the challenges. If you're a handwriter or slow typer, the first section will be a little aggravating, since it has the only two timed challenges in the crawl. However, neither has super-serious consequences if you fail (you miss out on two potions, which allow you to skip a challenge later on, and you have to write an extra 200 words), and the rest of the challenges are fine. I also like the unpredictability that the dice rolling brings. The story isn't the most amazing of the crawls I've seen, but it's not bad either.
3. The Fantasy Crawl. This is the crawl I'm currently working on. Typers will definitely have an advantage in this one, since a lot of the challenges are timed. However, the author of the crawl seems to do a good job balancing out later challenges so that slower writers don't constantly have the longest challenges. You also have the option to write for a certain amount of time instead of doing word wars, which I appreciate; waiting for someone to be ready for a word war is a good way to make a writing session less productive. The story is also pretty fun, which is nice.
4. The Doctor Who Crawl. I'm not a Whovian, but I might do this crawl anyway. It looks like fun, though it also looks like it would be pretty challenging if you're not lucky. It also has the best story I've seen in any wordcount crawl- and I've at least looked at all but the Harry Potter ones- so that's a bonus. (If anyone decides to do this, let me know what you think, particularly about how challenging it is, please!)
5. The Hunger Games Crawl. Yes, this is every bit as brutal a crawl as it sounds. However, it's also incredible for major wordcount boosts. How incredible? Well, when I did this last year, I died at the very beginning of the Arena section (which is the largest part of the crawl) and I still got at least 3K words. So, if you type/write faster than I do (and therefore have a better chance of survival), I wouldn't be surprised if you got twice my score- or more- in total.

Also, here's one last set of prompts for the month, just in case you get stuck. (Though, since most people should be wrapping up their novels by now, I'm not sure how necessary these are . . .) Enjoy!

• Life is a musical.: Write a scene in which one of your characters randomly starts singing. Cookies if he/she manages to get others to join in.
• Is that who I think it is?: Give one of your favorite characters from another story (either by you or someone else) a cameo. 
• Not all tears are evil.: Write a scene where characters part way- the reason is up to you. (If you need to get into the mood, just go listen to this.)

I hope you enjoy the crawls and the prompts! As always, let me know if you do any and how it turns out. Good luck this last week of NaNo, and have a great Thanksgiving!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)