My mom asked me tonight how it all works, the idea of writing an entire novel in a 30-day period. I remember when I first heard of NaNoWriMo, when I asked somebody else that exact same question. With my writing process to that point I couldn’t possibly imagine writing an entire novel in anything less than 6 months, and that was just talking about the rough draft, so writing 50,000 words in 30 days was daunting. It still is, but it’s all in mapping it out and sticking to the format, regardless of whether or not I’m “on.”
When I’m “on” I can write 5,000 words without even thinking about it. The words just flow together as if they’re writing themselves. But I’m 10 days into this year’s challenge and I’ve only had 4 days where I’ve been on. The other days I’ve worked extremely hard at it, but I’ve hit my goal every single day so far. That’s the key, not to get down, because if I missed just one day then I’m behind and it’s easier for me to just give up than try to catch up. I know this about myself so I use it as fuel to force myself to complete my daily goals.
10 days in, for me, is the point of no return. If at any point before it I lose focus and fall behind this is the absolute latest point when I can make it up. If I’m not running at pace by now then I’m not going to get there, and that’s not me being defeatist. That’s me being realistic because I’m also working two jobs, I have two young children, and life often intervenes, making the achievement of the goal more difficult. So I’m extremely proud of hitting my number every day, and sometimes going over.
At some point further along, I know I’m going to run into some type of brick wall, but because I’ve gotten this far I know I will be able to scale it. I already hit my goal today (1800 words), and I’m thinking about typing some more before bed. I’m at a spot where my characters are growing and changing, which are good spots to add some words to the total because it means I’m on a roll.
Good luck to all my other Wrimers out there tonight.
Word count: 20,198 words.
Sam
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