NaNoWriMo Day 19: Are you still in to win??

November 19th, 2011

Well, we’re 19 days into NaNoWriMo – there are many of us fallen by the wayside, no doubt, but many still plowing on and, if you’re like me, extending your deadline a little. I’m sitting at just under 30k, but am aiming to complete a first draft of around 80k by Christmas.

I’m really enjoying writing my novel, BUT – and there is a huge BUT here – it has been haaaarrrrrrdddd…. At times the 2000 words a day regime has felt like a logistical impossibility. At the beginning of the month I was like, ’2000 words a day? Pah! A mere 2-hour trot!’ Now, having faced the onslaught of days that just get busier and busier, nights with a screaming child that render me soggy-brained and incapable of spelling ‘apple’ the following day, I have respect for 2000 words. RE-SPECT.

Still, I AM enjoying what I write, what is half the battle. I have toyed with the notion of writing the words ‘it doesn’t matter if it’s rubbish’ in black marker on my laptop, because sometimes that’s the only kind of mantra that enables those 2000 words to get out of my head and to the screen. And often, what I expected to be drivel is surprisingly decent – or, at the very least, fixable.

And – the sword of NaNoWriMo – I’m constantly writing ideas in a notebook. Those little scribbles are like seed bombs, exploding into scenes and character development that ultimately push my word count forward.

Keep going! I’ll see you on the other side. x

If you enjoyed this article, you might also be interested in:

1. NaNoWriMo, Day 1 – Notebooks at the Ready!
2. Writing retreats