NaNo Update Nov 26

Well, there are only a few days left of the official NaNoWriMo writing challenge. I’m also almost halfway into my personal goal to be in better shape by January. I’ll be honest, there have been a couple times I thought I must be nuts to take on two big challenges at the same time.

The health goals picked back up this week. Even during the worst of the bronchitis I was drinking more water and fewer sodas. And those few pounds I lost have stayed off. Now that the breathing is back to almost normal, I’ve gone back to using the stairs at work when I can. I’m following the guidelines often given to patients: up one down two. In other words, if you have to go up one floor or down two floors, consider taking the stairs rather than the elevator. The big goal this week relates to Thanksgiving. The goal is to take very small portions of all my favorites so I am not denying myself, but don’t go overboard with huge portions or multiple helpings. And if I can get back to exercising soon, that would be good too.

The writing had both good and not so good this week. I had another personal best writing day at just over 3K! But it was followed by a day where I struggled for every word and only reached 1600. I knew I needed a super duper weekend to have any real chance at getting to the 50K mark by the 30^th and put too much pressure on myself for that day.

But I showed up, I wrote on a day when I didn’t really feel like it. It was one of those days where I was working on developing the habit of writing even if the quality wasn’t so hot.

I’m at 37851 as I write this, and know that unless there is a miracle in the next few days I will not get to the 50K. It was a week I had to test my “I’ll be happy with any words” statement that I made to fellow writers.

But I can say I am happy with this challenge.

I proved to myself that 1000-1500 a day with a previous max of 3K for a full weekend is NOT my limit. I can have a much better writing day, and therefore writing weekend, than that!

I worked on developing a habit that I plan on making last.

I learned I need to show up every time I have planned to write, and I need to give it a serious effort, but if things are just not flowing, then close it down and go do something else rather than trying to force it.

And I learned that fast first drafts are not for everyone. I can do some serious writing in fast first mode, but I miss the feedback from my writing buddy and editor. I need a good balance of both.

But best of all, I will have a great start on a new novel and a pretty good direction for a full series!

That’s pretty awesome in such a short time!

How about you? Do you think you could set a high goal and achieve it in a month? Would you set a goal you know you can’t reach in that time just to see how far you can get? If you’re doing NaNo, what have you gained from it?