So, guess what my word count for the year is…
"I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book." -Bruce Springsteen, DANCING IN THE DARK
There was an online write-in for NaNoWriMo today and I am now at 42,504 words. I haven't been giving you constant word count updates this year because I've got that widget at the top of the page which updates my word count in real time and it seemed like overkill to keep giving you updates in posts. But I'm making exception today because I have some extra exciting news.
During the write-in today, not only did I reach the number above, but I also… well, let me let the potato tell you…
Remember my plan to write 500 words a day in 2010? How I concluded that would be 182,500 words for the year? I just hit my 2010 writing goal a full month early!
Now, of course, I told you over the summer I was planning on raising my goal to 200,000 words, because I was already ahead and wanted to make it more of a challenge. Besides, 200,000 is a nice even number. So I'm a smidge over 17,000 words away from that goal. Considering at least 7000 of those will be completed with the end of NaNoWriMo we're looking at just 10,000 words to meet that new higher goal. Totally completely doable even with December insanity.
The one thing that is sort of putting a damper on my celebrating is the fact that, while I did write a large amount this year, I managed to do it while taking several weeks off because of my hand problems. The fact that I was able to still meet my goal even with taking a chunk of time off, even if it was time off for very legitimate reasons, makes me think that the goal I set the first place wasn't hard enough. So, I'm already formulating ways to kick it up several notches for next year. But more on that in the future.
On a side note, several people have asked me what the deal was with my hands. Long story short, the problem isn't something fixable and it's just something I'm going to be dealing with on a certain level for the rest of my life. Not exactly the diagnosis I was looking for. I was kind of hoping it would be something easily fixable, that we could correct and then move on issue free. But there are many ways it could've been much worse so I'm thankful and disappointed both.
One of the things the doctor kept stressing was that I had to just keep living my life. I'm still supposed to rest my hands whenever there is pain, but he didn't want me to avoid using them entirely because he was afraid the muscles would become weak which would only make the situation worse. So I'm pretty much doing the same thing I've always done, though I am making some adjustments in my life to get rid of some of the worst repetitive mouse work that I have to do. I'm going to continue switching back and forth between right and left hand for the mouse depending on which hand hurts less and I'm also going to be using the dictation program as often as possible when it comes to typing. After so much practice, I'm getting much better at using it and it's nice to have it as an additional option on days (like right now) when my hands feel awful, but there's lots of work to do.
There were so many delays and long waits for appointments and insurance clearance and other things throughout this process that slowed it down. It's somewhat insane that an issue that started the end of June would only get an answer near the end of November but, at the same time, now knowing the big picture, I guess it's appropriate that we finally got a diagnosis days before Thanksgiving. It feels like a message not to take anything for granted and to be thankful for what you have while you have it.
(It occurs to me as I reread this that I should probably be looking at this in terms of, "Wow! Even with all my hand issues, I still managed to meet my write goal! How awesome I?" Instead of "if I managed to meet my write goal with busted hands, I should've made a harder write goal." This must be that "you are too hard on yourself" thing everyone keeps telling me about. Must work on this.)
Even though I met my goal, I'm still going to keep writing, obviously. When we get to the end of the year, we'll take a look at the final count and I'll show you some of the insane graphs I made to track my progress and work habits. I've also started planning an even more insane spreadsheet for next year's goal. 
I've been so busy with NaNoWriMo that I wasn't even paying attention to my yearly write goal so when I put my word count into the spreadsheet today it was a nice little surprise to see that I passed it.
I'm actually hoping to finish NaNoWriMo before we leave for Thanksgiving break on Wednesday just so there's one less thing on my plate when the holiday retail season kicks into overdrive but I may leave myself a few words to do at the very end. Just keep things interesting.
Here's wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday (assuming you celebrate it)!
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