The First Week of NaNoWriMo

I’ve seen some updates for the first week of NaNoWriMo, so I thought I’d jump in. I’ve been so wrapped up in my story that I haven’t surfaced much to talk about it. I’m also very sensitive during the creation process because my manuscript is my precious little newborn baby that I’m just not ready to share with the world. I’ve got the rose-colored glasses on, and I’m okay with that.

I’m terrified of getting criticism too early, so I only release the initial terrible drafts to people who have genuinely asked to read it and will only provide me praise at this point in the journey. Real criticism comes after I clean up the first or second draft.

After 7 days, I ended up with about 12,090 words, which is an estimate because I’m writing longhand. However, I’m fairly consistent about word estimates per page after typing it up to check. I only have about 8,000 words typed up. The goal is 11,669 for day 7, so I’m ahead.

Last year I was only writing about 500 words a day for NaNoWriMo to start with because I just couldn’t mentally push through it. Leading up to NaNoWriMo this year, I spent about 4 months writing almost every day (I’m on a 12-week streak of never missing a day) on my second novel, and I spent quite a few of those days going to the library and pushing through hours and hours of writing at once. I couldn’t even fathom this during November last year.

If I’m not writing and I have free time, it feels like a huge void in my life. I feel like all of my spare time should be spent writing or editing/revising because that’s been my life most of this year. I’m starting to feel like a full-time writer (even though I’m not) because I regularly get down more than the 500 words per day I was doing last year and writing is always on my mind. I don’t wait for inspiration – I just do the work and sit down and write as if it were my job.

I’ve come a long way with my writing in the last year. I never thought I’d be at this point. I’m getting one step closer to my dream of being prolific enough to write/publish two novels a year (though I’ve heard of full-time writers that produce one every couple of months!). Until then, I’ll just keep trudging.

 

Image Credit: Cristy Zinn

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