NaNoWriMo- How It's Going

Let's just say, this cat pounding a keyboard like it's possessed gets me. That is all.

I thought I'd do an update seeing as we're halfway into #Nanowrimo. A quick reminder that the goal of Nano is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. Being hallway through the month, you would expect your girl to be halfway through this goal, wouldn't you? Well...let's discuss what project I ended up selecting to work on for Nano as well as how I'm doing with reference to the 25,000 words I should have written by now.

My Nano Project:

I decided to explore a romance idea I've had for a while. Yeah, I know- wild. I feel like 'romance' is misleading but it is the closest to the truth in that the central theme is romantic. That said, it's really a book about the psychology of relationships, or people in relationships. Who do we show up as in relationships and why? In what ways and to what extent do we create avatars to represent us in some of the most important relationships of our lives? What does that mean for the authenticity of our relationships and our sense of belonging within them? These are the questions underpinning the project. I know this may sound more like a self-help book from this shotgun description, but that's just my current inability to articulate the idea in its fullness. It is definitely a novel; I have my setting, my timeline, my cast of characters, and a briefly outlined plot. Loosely, we follow our main character through a string of relationships and as she tries to dissect her character within them. I'm excited to dive into it because of the intersectionality of so many ideas. I have no idea how those will mesh and I have to idea how the book will progress and what kind of end product that will create when its all said and done. I'm also excited and a bit afraid of the personal truths this process will likely reveal for me, but that's part of the joy.

Current word count: 17,009 words. This puts me 7,996 words behind here I should be. That said, since I've updated my writing process (which I've detailed below) I've significantly closed the gap between where I was and where I should be, and I'm on pace to actually be further than the 50,000 word goal by the end of Nano. So, I'm not too worried, but I absolutely understand the value of consistency for the reminder of the month.

My first mistake:

My goal was to write daily from 8-10pm. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. That did not happen. I learned or rather remembered quickly (because I've been here before) that my days are just not that predictable. They should be; the world is in lockdown, I work from home, it's dark and dreary out so-in my defense- expecting myself to be in one spot by 8pm daily was a fairly reasonable goal. I think it failed because I failed to account for laziness. I also didn't account for the sessions I would spend staring at the screen without putting down a single word. So in short, as with most things, expectations were slightly ahead of reality. However, I did manage to figure out a process that does work for me, and it even allowed me to write more than the daily goal with what felt like less effort, which has helped me catch up and make my way back from what was a backward slide.

Process update:

I now write twice a day, at a word count of around 1,200 per sitting. That's between 2,400-2,500 words a day. The Nano daily word count goal is 1,667 words. I know, I should have planned to do this from the beginning, but alas, I didn't. The good news is that this blog post will exist this time next year, and I'll be in a better place to start Nanowrimo in 2021. I think this new process works so well because it's essentially a productivity hack. When I tell my brain to focus for two hours straight and to make sure it hits the daily goal- it responds with a groan, but when I tell my brain to focus for just one hour and write as much it can, without the pressure of a fixed word count because there's another opportunity to write more later - then suddenly my brain is like 'meh, okay'. It's not rocket science, if a goal feels too big to tackle as is, just break it down into bite-size chunks that are easier to manage. A lesson for Nano, a lesson for life.

Anyway, I cant stay too long because...must write more words. But I did want to pop in and give an update. I also wanted to apologize for this being the first blog post in a month, although in my defense, it is Nano. By the way, my survival anime of choice is Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's amazing, you can never rewatch it enough and now it's on Netflix. That said, I look forward to getting back into my weekly routine starting in December (at the end of Nano).

Until then, happy writing and if you celebrate, Happy Thanksgiving in advance.

Noni