In the Trenches

NaNoWriMo began four days ago. *cracks knuckles* I set myself a word count to meet daily, which I'm sure it a tactic that many people are employing. To be particular, you have to write 1666.666666666667 words per day to write 50,000 in thirty days. To give myself a little margin, and not be completely neurotic, I'm making myself write 1700 words or more.

I have even given my husband permission to get on my case. He's asking me how many words I've written at the end of each day and murmuring in disapproval if I "only" write my minimum. It is remarkably effective! I've also given myself a little extra incentive and told myself that if I meet the NaNo challenge, I'm allowed to give myself my World of Warcraft account back. (Long story.)

So! I've been cracking right along and have met or exceeded my personal requirements. I am at 8306 words here on Day Four. Given everything I have going on elsewhere in life, not the least of which being an active twenty month old little boy, I'm fairly pleased with myself about this!

Now, I'm an outliner. Some folks write by the seat of their pants by nature, some do that for NaNo. I outline all my stories. I had a full outline for a story, but had been struggling with actually writing it. That's why I chose it for NaNo. But now looking at how far in my outline I've gotten compared to word count… I'm a little worried my story may not make 50K, even if I finish it!

Yikes! What is a girl to do? Well, if I finish the outline, whether I meet 50K or not, I do a happy dance. I guess then, perhaps, I'll go back and revise and expand – do those things that I cannot let myself do now. See if that works up the word count. Or maybe I'll just start another story and tack that on! Ha!

But… all that being said… there's no reason to not be optimistic. These first few scenes were tricky because of the things that can and can't be revealed yet, but as I am able to reveal more, more can be written so that scenes to come will likely be longer. So maybe I will make 50K. Either way, just have to keep pushing forward.

Good luck to all the other NaNoWriMo crazies out there!