Nano

I am doing (er, attempting) National Novel Writing Month again.

In case you don’t know, the goal for NaNoWriMo participants is to write 50,000 words throughout the course of November. A daunting goal for most. It does seem slightly less onerous when broken down to a daily total of 1,667, but it is still a challenge (and no, smartass, typing the same word 1,667 times in a row does NOT count).
I got pretty far in 2012… a bit over 36,000 words. Unfortunately, I let a couple of unfortunate situations throw me off track. My subsequent efforts didn’t go even that well.

Flash forward to last week. I had been going back and forth for several days:

• Do I really want to attempt NaNo?
• What makes me think I could actually win (a.k.a., finish the month having written 50,000)?
• Do I really want to fail AGAIN?

As it turns out, I did start Nano. Starting it was actually the very first thing I did when I woke up on November 1st. I get out of bed at the appointed time, walked to my desk (not a challenge, as it is mere steps from my bed) (my apartment is small, okay?), turned on my computer, and went at it. I pounded out a few sentences, then went on with my day. Between getting to the office a bit early and writing, as well as making good use of my lunch break, I made a pretty decent showing on day one. It didn’t quite get to the requisite 1,667, but that’s fine. I was going at it. I was giving it a shot.

I kept it up through the remainder of the week. Some days I managed to get out more words than other days. As I write this, it is Sunday evening, the sixth day of Nano. My word count is significantly far behind where it needs to be in order to finish at 50,000 words. It’s still well within the realm of possibility that I can catch up. I may actually win this thing (winning defined as, of course, getting to that magic 50k)... who knows?
I may not get to 50,000, and that’s okay. I have promised myself that I will not give up, no matter what my word count says. Winning for me, at least with regards to this round, is about not giving up. Winning is also about trying, no matter what the negative little monkey brain chatter in my head tells me.
So I guess that as of the sixth day of National Novel Writing Month, I have already won.