Not A NANO…Again, But That's OK

This month has become a lesson about progress. A challenge like NaNoWriMo requires a steady increase in words through out the four weeks of November. Ideally, one makes daily progress at a steady pace. When that pace is disrupted by missed days and those days multiply the word count skyrockets out of reasonable control. That's what happened this year.

I have missed twelve days so far. Of the days I did write, I did not get the suggested minimum of 1,667 words. I've never hit the bare minimum, in fact. Many of the days have come in significantly lower than that. So, the result is that I won't be finishing my 50,000 word novel by this coming Sunday. I think I will try to put more words down between now and then.

I had high hopes of getting a book done this year. I came pretty close last year. But, real life gets in the way of the best conceived plans. I'll just try to deal with that and keep going. So there it is, fellow Nanos.

Off The Rails

The novel's at a crawl right now. My concentration is shredded. Not a good place during the second half of NaNoWriMo 2014. Not at all. The book is very far behind where it should be at this point in the month. I've been here before when trying to do this. It's discouraging and frustrating.

I like this idea of writing a book in month. I keep coming back to it, giving myself the pep talk, and making announcements about participation in National Novel Writing Month and proceed to make the same mistakes as last year, and the year before that. I can say I got a little over half done last year. Even ended up with a finished book. That's something I guess.

I feel like I'm trapped in a ball of nervous energy that writhes inside and makes concentration pretty impossible. I procrastinate too. The only solace is knowing other writers have been where I'm at right now.

There are others things going on that I've not mentioned that might help explain why things are going poorly with my writing endeavors, but I don't mean them as excuses for not taking the time to write each day since November 1st. It was so manageable, wasn't it? I mean what's really so hard about six or seven pages? Double-spaced ones, no less? But that's all in the past. Things have gotten out of hand in this process.

I'm off the rails. Yep, this writer is off the rails and going through a gamut of feelings just to get to some sense of equilibrium so he can continue the storytelling. That's where it, ultimately, needs to lead. I need to get back to it, but this little rant is like letting off steam. Hopefully, it'll help me get back on track. (Yes, I noticed the train references. Nice right?)

Rough Start To NaNoWriMo 2014

So, the 10th day of NaNoWriMo is nearly over and I'm seriously behind. I've had a something of a rough start to this year's book writing but I'm not ready to give up quite yet. I have a chance to get back on target with word counts and hopefully cross the finish line on the 30th for the first time.

This is a big deal for me. The chance to finish book or at least 50,000 words of a  book in thirty days will be a great milestone. I currently have 5,260 words done so I have 44,740 words left to write. At this stage, that means I need to write 2,237 words at day, minimum, to cross the finish line. That's still doable. So let the challenge continue.