NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and is held every November. It’s a challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days (or 1,667 per day). Writers and wanna-be writers come together with a common goal to write novels, short stories, memoirs, whatever it is they’ve been putting off or need a push to get started. This year I decided I would document my daily writing practice as I strive to finish a draft of a novel I’ve been taking far too long on.
Day 18
Words Written: 1,877
Total Word Count: 28,046
Goal: 50,000
I really really didn’t think I was going to hit the goal today. I slept in (you know, to 7AM) and didn’t even start writing until after 2PM. I was not optimistic that I would get a good amount of words in. But, I took my time. Instead of sitting down and feeling frustrated that I couldn’t knock out 1000 words in a sitting, while also making dinner, getting snacks, playing with cars and action figures, and cleaning the house.
But, I literally took it 100 words at a time. I had 100 words as a goal and would sometimes get 200-300 done. Then I took a break and would go back with the same intention. So basically I got my words in today simply because of a change of mindset. I would have liked to have written a few more to help make up the gap, but I’m still writing more than the 1667 so I should still finish on time. Especially if I get a good few days in to help close the gap.
If anything, I’m just proud that I kept going. There were some days that I really didn’t feel like writing. Or days that I felt frustrated to still be behind the pace. But I kept going. I’ve written over 11,000 words since my last big slump. I could have stopped them, thought it was a lost cause. But the thing about this month is not just writing 50,000 words, but writing the book you’ve been putting off.
And even if I only write 45,000 or 49,000 or whatever, I have still made progress in my book. So while I might be behind the goal for November 18th, I’m still way past where I would be if I had given up or hadn’t started at all.
So that’s something to be proud of.
Until tomorrow,
-Mackenzie
