Getting to the End of NaNoWriMo on Time

It’s time to panic. It’s the last week of NaNoWriMo, and I am staring down the real possibility that I may not finish. This despite having hit my writing goals every week so far.

As you may recall, I approached NaNoWriMo from a slightly different angle. Rather than trying to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, I am trying to finish the new Wolf Dasher novel, Roses Are White, by the end of the month. I had 12 chapters done when I started NaNoWriMo, and I’ve been trying to write a chapter a day every weekday in November. So far, I’m completely on target.

But, over the weekend, I mapped out what I have remaining in Roses Are White. I came up with 14 scenes/events that need to occur before I type, “The End.” There are six days left in November. Even if I did two scenes a chapter, I wouldn’t make it.

I haven’t bracketed all this into chapters yet, so I’m not quite sure how many I have left. (I intended to do that this weekend, but there were a lot of leaves to rake, and my brain was mush when I was done.)

It’s possible I might be able to pull it off. The children are all with their respective other parents this holiday, so there may be some extra writing hours available that would not normally have been there.

But the fact is after I write 3000 words, I’m pretty creatively tapped out for the day. And my outline seems to indicate there’s a lot more than 3000 words a day left.

We’ll see, though. I don’t like the Macy’s parade, so I can probably sneak in some extra time there. After that, it gets dicey. There’s football and turkey and Black Friday shopping, and The Wife wants to spend some time catching up on Season Three of Downton Abbey, so we’re ready for the Season Four premiere in January.

So here comes the home stretch. I’m gearing up for a serious race against time. I’m not sure I’m going to win.

How about you? Are you going to make it to the end of your NaNoWriMo project on time? Leave me a comment to let me know how you’re doing.