Tags
determination, grit, NaNo Prep, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo goals, National Novel Writing Month, preptober, self-doubt, writing goals, writing sprints
Hello to all of my lovely friends.
It is NaNoWriMo season, and I have been training hard to create a consistent writing routine. Last month with my writer-opoly challenges, I got my 750 words a day—or 23,250 words for the month. I was 500 shy of that goal, so I still consider this a success. It helped me get ready for 1,667 words a day in November.
Yup, that’s what National Novel Writing Month is for: writing 50,000 words in thirty days.
We authors are a crazy lot, yeah?
Well, it’s the first time I’ve gotten to participate in the ACTUAL NaNoWriMo because November is usually the time for grading essays and midterms and readying for finals. It’s usually a time of editing stories for a December publication. And since I have neither of those things this month. I’m going to give that 50,000-word goal a genuine try.
Here’s a little comparison of my Preptober goals, and all of those nice boxes that I did not check off, with my goals for November, where you’ll see I was nicer to myself because…let’s face it, the word count goal for the month is a killer. It’s hard to do anything else.
One thing I’ve really noticed during the first week of Nano is that the sprints have been my friends. I’m doing four or five of them a day to combat with writing fatigue, and my chart is a lifesaver for keeping myself on track.
I’m off to an okay start for week one. Even with going to the dentist and the job interview that I got lost after, I’m not as far behind as I would have predicted.
So, let’s look at my numbers so far:
Week One | November 1-7
Week One | November 1-7
Words Behind: 221
Words To-Be Written: 38,552
See! I’m doing okay. I’m roughly 165,000 words into Wooing the Alpha, and that’s over 600 pages, by he way. My end goal is 210,00-220,000 words for this project, so I’m getting close.
Here’s hoping NaNoWriMo gets me to a good spot where the end is in sight.
This project has been a rollercoaster. And being in the muddy bit—the end of the middle—during a high-powered month like this may seem a little insane. I’m not running on the shiny new project high to get me through this.
This is all grit and grinding, folks.
I’ve trained all year for it. And damn it, I want to be a winner at the end of this.
So wish me luck, y’all, and tell me about what you’re working on in November. Is it Nano? Is it something else? Let me know in the comments below.
And check out my first week’s NaNoWriMo vlog:
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