Sunday, November 15, 2015

NaNo Halfway Update

Well, it's been a crazy month.

I've put the pedal to the metal, burned the midnight oil on a few occasions, and burned the candle at both ends more than once--but I haven't burnt out yet.

At the beginning of the month, I said I'd set out to write 30,000 words in a novel I had actually plotted out a bit (feel free to faint right now; this normally doesn't happen).

Miraculously, I've done a lot more writing than I thought I would. My typing speed has improved significantly since last year. So, instead of being able to only type about 500 words in a 15 minute word war, I've been typing 800 or 900.

Which means that it's taking me less time to type my novel for NaNo than I expected. Like, 20 minutes or half an hour of writing a day instead of 45 minutes or an hour to meet word count goals.

So, being stubborn and not one to be told by my more rational self that I should do things in moderation, I decided that I should try to write all 50k this month (so long as I'm staying on top of the rest of my to-do list and still getting 7 hours of sleep a night).

I know I'm crazy. But a lot of crazy stuff has been happening this month--I've surprised myself with my ability to motivate myself, my grades, and my ability to meet goals when I set my mind to it in various aspects of my life. I like the results I get when I push myself and I actually feel better than just trying to scrape by with the bare minimum (most of the time; I'm still human--don't worry). So I've decided to push myself a bit with my writing, too.

Granted, this might change by the end of the month. I might realize a project is going to take longer than I thought, that my grades were a fluke during October, or I might get a sinus infection that knocks me out cold for a week straight.

But right now I'm shooting for 50k. Because I think that we'd all amaze ourselves if we tried to see how far we could actually go.

To the Nano'ers out there, how's your month going?

4 comments:

  1. That's awesome -- go for it! It looks like you're on track to hit that 50,000. :) You write like 4 times faster than I do, but I think my speed is slowly increasing (it also depends on the day, and what I'm writing, etc. etc.). I'm a few hundred words behind on my 25,000-word goal, but I got about 3,000 in this weekend, which for me is pretty darn good! Also, just reading about your motivation makes me feel motivated.

    Happy writing! (and studying ;) )

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    Replies
    1. Glad I could offer some encouragement! I'm hoping it doesn't all hit the fan as far as my word count is concerned; historically, this is the point where I start struggling during NaNo.

      I also write REALLY sloppily during NaNo, so that's how I'm able to crank out some words.

      3,000 words is awesome for one day! Happy writing and thanks for the comment!

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  2. Good luck with your word count!!! I think it's great that you're going for the whole 50,000 words. I think we would all amaze ourselves if we pushed a little harder sometimes. Good luck!

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