NANO Check In

It's been almost a week since the kick-off November's National Novel Writing Month, better known as NANO. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month, roughly translating to 1700-words per day.

It's six days in--how am I holding up?

Somewhat shockingly, really, really well. Haven't had to go to one AA meeting yet. ;)

My routine has been to get up early and go immediately to my laptop in my writing room. I draw the blinds the night before so there are no outside distractions. I turn on the fireplace, light a scented candle, ring my grandfather's chimes that hang in my office, turn off Internet access and start typing. I go into full screen mode, again for no distractions. I'm usually 1300 words in by the time I decide I'm getting tired and want to check my word count. I've been coming in each day at just under 2,000 words and it's taking only a little over an hour to get them down.

Of course, this isn't my best writing but I knew going in that it wouldn't be. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have a novel at the end of the month so much as I am going to have just written 50,000 words. I'm not writing in a linear fashion where chapter one leads to chapter two. And that's okay. My goal for this month was to learn to write quickly. Perhaps next year I'll make the more focused attempt to write a cohesive novel that could be read front to back. For now, writing almost 2000 new words a day is getting me pumped up about writing. 

It's still early, but my confidence is high right now that I'll make it through the month. I've been writing extra words each morning to build a bank in case something comes up--such as the Richmond marathon this weekend--and don't want to have to worry about writing 1700 words on a busy day. Still, I've decided I AM going to write each day, even if I've got enough words in the bank that I don't have to. Just a quick 500 to keep the momentum going. And yes, that includes race day. 

So far, I'm thrilled I'm doing this. Getting it done and out of the way before 7 a.m. means it's really not affecting any other part of my life or work day, and I just feel better about myself, knowing I have the discipline to sit down and do this. 

That's the report for this week. Hopefully next week's will be just as strong. 

Cheers,

Dena