I have not written 1,667 words every day, but on those days when I wrote less or did not write at all, I succeeded in making up during the other days.
So here are some of my thoughts about NaNoWriMo so far:
1. I love the website. I enjoy the pep-talk messages they send me. I like getting to go and update my word count after I write. And I utterly adore that they make a little bar graph of how much I've written on what days compared with the 1,667 words a day I'm aiming for. Graphs do bring out the happy nerd in me. :)
2. I have learned that I can write way more than one scene at a time. I'm used to sitting down and writing out a scene and then having to take a break while I shift my mind from that scene to the next. I have now discovered that I can push through that and keep going with relative ease.
3. 1,667 words a day sounds unbelievably daunting, but it really isn't that bad. Sure, when it's a scene I'm struggling with or one I simply had never planned on having in the story and I have no clear sense of where it's going, it can be a bit of an effort to get the words onto the paper. But on those chapters where I know what's happening and I'm excited about what's happening, 1,667 is easily reached and passed.
4. I owe a great deal of my success staying on top of my NaNoWriMo writing to my friend Abby Schwartz, who is participating with me. Knowing that she's doing it to, us texting each other to find out when the other is writing and then checking up to see if it happened, getting to see where her word count is at on the website, all these things have been incredibly motivational to me. She holds me accountable for the writing I'm doing, and it's really helped a lot for me to persevere on those days when I honestly just want to go to bed.
5. I adore my husband. This is not a NaNoWriMo epiphany. I have an amazing husband and I'm aware of how blessed I am to have him. But my disappearing into my office after the girls go to bed and often times not coming back upstairs until after he's turned in has been a not great aspect of NaNoWriMo. I wish I was able to write earlier in the day, but my extremely pregnant self can't seem to find the energy to do much writing when it can be napping instead. My husband has never complained about this sudden decrease in our time together. I don't care for it, and I'm sure he doesn't either, but he supports my dream of being an author and I love him so much for that. And for a multitude of other reasons as well, but I'm keenly aware of that support this month.
I honestly believe I will be a NaNoWriMo winner this year. I will successfully write 50,000 words this month. And it will either finish my book or get me ridiculously close since I started NaNoWriMo with 46,500 words of my novel written (well, 46,503 to be exact). And the nerd in me also enjoys the subtraction of that 46,503 from my current word count to find out where I am in my NaNoWriMo journey.
I encourage anyone out there who wants to be an author (or already is an author but wants help motivating themselves to write another spectacular book) to participate in NaNoWriMo next year. I am having a blast!
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