29 November 2019

NaNoWriMo - Week 5 Progress

Written by Sarah-Maree

I know there’s still more time left today and there’s still tomorrow to take into consideration, but I’m going to assume at this point that I’m done for. I just don’t have the motivation to write right now. So, this is my total for this year’s NaNoWriMo attempt 25,000. And yes, I specifically wrote just enough to hit the 25,000 mark. I couldn’t help myself.


A lot of things came between me and my writing. Days without motivation. Free time spent reading, crafting, or gaming. Doctor visits. Family events. And worse yet, there were days where I would force myself to write only to discover I hated the writing I was producing.

Sometimes, I’d catch myself editing while writing (something I do naturally and that normally strengthens my writing), but with NaNoWriMo, I was at war with my normal habits. I would find myself editing a paragraph I’d just written for the sake of clarity or better word choice, like I would normally do, and then I’d see my word count go down and I’d freak out. When I say I was at war, I mean it. I would sit and try to calculate the number of words I’d written and then deleted so I could add that to a documents word count total. It was stressful, annoying, and unproductive as it cost me precious time and demotivated me.

Next year, if I make the attempt again, I think I’ll go about it in a different way. Rather than worrying about word count, I’ll focus on writing every day. I won’t stress if a piece isn’t completed or if there are fewer words written one day over another. I won’t worry about completing a book so much as feeling good about the work I’ve done. I hate to admit it, but next NaNoWriMo may be more successful than this one as the stress is removed.

So, what is my next goal? The unfortunate one is to edit everything I wrote for this month and to organize things. As for the blog, I think I’ll go back to writing advice, telling short stories and also sharing random stories from Dungeons & Dragons type campaigns. Oh, and of course, I’ll also have the occasional update on my writing and crafting too!

To those still pushing through for National Novel Writing Month, I wish you good luck!

Photo Credit: Pixabay

 

About the Author

I may not be the nerdiest nerd you’ve ever met, but I still like to think of myself as a lover of science, video games, and of course, books.

CAFFEINE IS MY MUSE

Read plenty, read often

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