It’s that time of year when the National Novel Writing Month is upon me once again.
This will be my third year of trying. I’m not sure what I like about it the most – the target driven days of writing, the close-knit community of creatives urging me on or the sense of achievement when midnight strikes on the last day of the month and I’ve actually written something rather than procrastinating. I think it’s a bit of everything.
Writing 1,667 words every day for 30 days in a row is not an easy task. No matter how fast I type or how well planned-out my plot is, there is always something that happens to stall me. However, NaNo is what urges me on when the blank page becomes the size of the room and every word is paid with a drop of a blood to the Creative God of Vomit Drafts.
This year, I have opted to try something a bit different.
My own target.
I’m on Day 10 and my word count is erratic to say the least, it seems I manage a totally different amount each day. My aim, this year, is to write at least 250 words a day. That’s not a lot, I hear you cry. Believe me, when I get home from work dealing with spreadsheets all day, the last thing I want to do is open the laptop up and start on another document. But, and it’s a huge but, that’s the beauty of being a writer, no matter how bad a day I’ve had or how busy the rugrats are, I want to write. I need to write. It’s part of my DNA. My genetic make-up has been created with nouns and verbs.
Most of the time I quadruple my daily count but on the days I manage 250 at least I can say I have achieved something. I think psychologically I am deluding myself as I will never reach the 50k target of the full NaNo but never say never – I don’t know what’s around the corner, for all I know it could be the deal I’ve been waiting for, the literary light at the end of the NaNo tunnel.
I’m not going to get there if I don’t have anything completed and ready to share.
There’s just the small matter of finishing this draft.
Maybe I should count the number of cuppas I have while doing this? I’m concerned they might outweigh the number of words and that would be very, very wrong. Maybe.
Do you take milk in your tea? Biscuit? Marvellous.
Let’s write.
You are doing amazing lovely. Keep going. I am failing miserably. Now with the kids ill, I’ve not done any writing for almost a week. But still, I’ve done more words than I might have this month, right. And it’s thanks to you and the cheering squad. Thank you xx
Some days it’s not there but knowing you’re all doing the same makes me write, even if it’s just 250 words. We’ll get there 🙂
Good luck and enjoy the process, Sarah. Maybe next year for me. ☺️
Thanks Frances x