NaNo21: Days 4, 5, 6, & 7

Whoo, didn’t realize it’d been so long since I last posted!

On Thursday, I was able to get 5k in, but then, due to stress and other factors, I only managed 2k on both Friday and Saturday. Tonight, I had really only planned to write another 2k, but 3k came out with ease, and I still had about twenty-five minutes before midnight to punch out another 1k to bring my November total to a cool 25k.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad for the progress. But this has to be the slowest NaNo I’ve done since I studied for an exam in 2016. Hard to admit that, but it’s true.

On Thursday, I did some stretches–which I desperately needed to do–but on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I was quite sedentary. At least on Saturday I walked a pair of dogs (I was dogsitting; one of the dogs was mine) a few times in the gorgeous semi-autumn weather we’re getting down here in Florida right now. It was a chilly 70 degrees for most of the morning yesterday, and today was just way too beautiful. I ended up keeping my windows down whenever I was in the car.

Better yet, I have practiced violin everyday this week, so that chain isn’t yet broken. I’m now preparing for a mini “recital” (it’s technically a performance class for the students who can’t make it to the actual recital in two weeks, yours truly included). I’m not going to lie; the idea of playing only in front of a handful of elementary and middle-school students is far less frightening than climbing onto a stage and playing in front of gobs of show-recording parents, but it’s still a little nerve-wracking. I’m a little shy about performing, and I’m a late-starting perfectionist with no God-given talent on the violin. It’s rarely pretty, but, hey, I love playing.

We’re launching now into week 2, and it’s getting real now just where in the year we are (it’s like a slap of a cold fish in the face whenever I walk outside and see the neighbor’s Christmas lights already up). I should probably set a goal for this week wordcount-wise, but I’ll have to think about it before I commit to anything.

Let’s enter week 2 strong and excited!

Nano21: Day 3

Well, today was just not a good day.

I slept in this morning for various reasons, but thought it would be fine not to get a head start. But I got stressed out about something that only worsened when I got home. I ended up trying to self-numb on YouTube for far too long before finally, FINALLY forcing myself to get up. I practiced violin for a while before some technology fell apart on me, and I got mad enough that I ended that and went out instead to take a walk. It’s a humid 75 degrees out–not necessarily ideal, but a cool breeze made it comfortable, anyway.

Then I just procrastinated. I didn’t start writing until after 11:15pm, and finished just a few minutes ago with about 2k words, bringing me up to 12k total for the month.

I’m hoping that tomorrow the cause of my anxiety is neutralized and that nothing more builds on it, but regardless, I’m going to fight to do a little bit better. We’re only on Day 3 and I already feel the Week 2 Doldrums!

I hope your writing has been going smoothly and that you’ve been free of distractions!

NaNo21: Day 2

It’s midnight, and I’m concluding today’s writing with, you guessed it, another 5k. That’s a total of 10k so far this month, which puts me on pace for 150k if I maintain my average (if you can consider two days a sufficient number of data points for an average), though I think I’ve decided I’m going to aim for about 250k. This will put me at 3.5mil words in total for NaNoWriMo events. I wrote only 1k this morning before work, while the remainder I churned out between 9-10:30pm when I was done with some household chores.

I’m starting Book VIII, so it’s been a bit slow (reintroducing, as quickly as possible, the cast and the situations), but I’m enjoying it, and the good stuff is coming soon. Just a few more chapters, and I’ll be hitting some scenes I’ve had in my head for literal years.

I also practiced violin for about 45 minutes and did a little more than 30 minutes worth of stretches and foam rolling, which my body apparently desperately needed. Bones cracking, knots throbbing, and my calves screaming in pain—well, it felt like they were for a bit there. Much-needed stuff. I’m liking the balance thing. Probably should do more of it even outside of November, but of course we know I won’t.

Though I thought I would, I didn’t mess anymore with my speech-to-text app on my phone today. Because I’m not going for a huge NaNo this year, it kind of feels a little unnecessary to get words down in the car. I’m sure, however, I’ll tap into it at least a few times this month, if it doesn’t become a regular thing. I’m looking forward to what the next few days will bring.

NANo21: Day 1

And so has begun my fifteenth NaNoWriMo!

It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this for almost half my life. I had planned to go all out during this NaNo in celebration by aiming for the big 750k, but scheduling conflicts have made that nigh impossible if I want to survive the month. Instead, I’m aiming not for a particular word count (though my absolute minimum is 150k), but rather a balanced approach of writing, working out, and practicing violin consistently. I’m working on, surprise, my Long Story. In preparation for this, I started reading in February what I already have of the drafted saga, all 1.75 million words of it, and I just finished the reread yesterday. I had hoped to conclude the saga this year (I estimate, serendipitously, another 750k words remain in the story), but, alas, best laid plans and all…

As soon as it turned midnight, I wrote 3k at an average of 1k every 15 minutes. I’m pleased with that average, but would like to see it improve in general over the course of the month. This morning, in the few minutes of spare time before work, I snapped through another 1k. I tried to dictate in the car, but my speech-to-text app was malfunctioning, so I let it go. I think I’ve rigged a solution, though, so I’ll give it a shot tomorrow.

Work went a bit long because of a client emergency, and I had to cut my violin practice a wee bit short to pick up food (our refrigerator, bless it, died over the weekend and we didn’t realize it until last night—we replaced the relay and it seems to be working now). Then I poked around YouTube for a while before remembering that I was supposed to go for a run, which I did around 8:30pm. Then I poked around YouTube some more, cleaned up, and finally pumped out another 1k words before coming here to write this update at 11:30pm.

My hopes for NaNo21: don’t give up, don’t burn out, don’t settle. A wedding I’m attending in the middle of the month will eat up considerable time, as will dog-sitting next week, so I’m looking forward to practicing patience! The 750k might not be this year, but it’s definitely within future reach. And in the meantime, I’m fully devoting myself to having fun and being productive.

My NaNo username is merry_abandon if you’d like to buddy up with me. Happy writing, everyone! Let’s make 2021 everything 2020 was not!