So, I told you a few days ago that I was back in the game, and that was true. For about a day. The very next day I didn't write anything, yet again, and then the next day was Sunday, which is my day off. Sheesh, I am really not getting very far in this year's Nano am I? I am happy to announce that I did force my way through almost 4K though.
This year is just really weird for me. I am dealing with several new circumstances with this new book that I have never tried before, and I can't really say that I am a fan. I doubt I will be writing another book like this one, or at least not one this long. I really do think that this book is meant to be much shorter, considering the age of my audience, so it has really been difficult to stretch it out. Luckily since it shouldn't be this long I'll have no problem deleting a lot of the really bad stuff that I have written so far. Ick! Really, that is how I feel about a good amount of the words I have managed to get down.
So, for the rest of November I will keep sticking it out. If there is one thing that I want, it is to never start a NaNoWriMo and not finish it. I don't think I could deal with the knowledge that I "failed." Now before you lecture me for saying that not reaching 50K is failing, I KNOW! I am a strong believer in the idea that getting even one word down towards Nano is a "win." For me personally though, I never want to say I didn't reach that 50K goal.
Ever since I started doing NaNoWriMo in 2009 I have had a fierce competition with my former roommate, the one who got me started in the first place. She beat me in 2009 by about an hour. We both finished on Thanksgiving, and I just so happened to spend a little more time with extended family than she did that year. Ever since then I have come out on top first. I fiercely hold to this competition! To add to that, my Mom decided to try her hand again this year. After all this time of telling her she could do it, she is really doing it this time, and I fully believe that she is going to finish in grand fashion. This however puts me in a funky situation, being a four time Nano veteran ('09, '10, '11, August '12). She started off with a daily goal of 2,500 words. I normally would do this much in a day or more, but like I said, this year has been crazy difficult for me. I have this mad desire to finish before, because . . . I JUST HAVE TO!!! You know? It's like a rule!
Yeah, I know I am kinda crazy. I think I am working towards letting go of all of that. After a while the 1,667 daily word count wasn't even a challenge for me (on a good day I can get anywhere from 1200-2000 in one twenty-minute sprint), so the competition has been fun. This year though . . . I have reached the point where I would really rather be working on my other WIP and editing my books that I know are close to publishable. And so, I will keep on writing, but I am not going to make a big deal about how much I write. I am not worried in the least that I won't win. Writers of NaNoWriMo come in all styles and speeds. A bunch of my friends have already crossed that 50K finish line, which is pretty insane. I crossed that line right about this time of the month last year, but I had a lot more going for me that time.
So, a summary of all my mumbling up there: I'm not gonna keep aiming for the daredevil finishing date like I usual do. I'm settling for a more casual NaNoWriMo, in which I will come out on top word-count-wise, but I will also take the time to work on publishing my other books.
Keep going people! No matter how you choose to do it, we are gonna make it!
Hem-hawing around with 23,962 words of who knows what,
- Heidi Nicole Bird
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