Not only am I participating in NaNo for the first
time ever, I also made a personal commitment to be in better shape than I am
now when 2015 rolls around. A big part of both is accountability – making sure
to tell the folks cheering me on how I’m doing. Due to my schedule, I came into
this knowing that Wednesdays would be the toughest days. But I thought that
would be a good day for progress reports.
As for the health goals, excess stress in my life
over the last year derailed a lot of habits and really goofed up the body. So
the idea was to take small steps and make little changes each week that,
cumulatively, would improve the big picture. The big thing for the weekend was
to get up frequently and do something active. I did that working in my garden.
For this week, I wanted to up my step average from 8000+ to 10000, and drink
more water. I’ve got to be honest, I’m not there yet on the step count. I am
doing well on the water, though.
Now for the more exciting part: NaNo. So far, 5 days
in, I’ve done well and met my most of my word count goals. I came a little shy
on yesterday’s target, but overall I’m at over 7300 words, so I’m still going
strong! There is still a lot of time left. And I am sure I will have days along
the way that are not so great.
But how do I feel so far?
I am loving this!
The biggest things that keep my progress slow when I
write is the inner editor, constantly wanting to go back and revise and improve
what I’ve written, and feeling like I had to write the scenes in order for them
to really flow together well. I relaxed a bit on the scenes in order problem,
but only a tiny bit. With NaNo, I knew I had to just write. I had to give
myself permission to write a ton of backstory, write out of order, and leave it
be regardless of whether it was a gem or a piece of horrible crap. Revisions
won’t get the word count targets, and this month is about the word count, not
the quality of each sentence or whether there is good continuity.
It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Problems can be fixed later.
My writing buddy and dear friend is probably sitting
there right now thinking it took me long enough to get to this point. I’ve lost
count of how many times he has said “Just Write!”
Okay. So it took me a while. But I finally get the
idea.
If you’re participating in NaNo, what do you think?
Are you meeting your goals?
If you’re part of the cheering section, feel free to
post words of encouragement for ALL folks doing NaNo. And by the way, Thanks!!
You’re the best!
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