It seems a bit ironic that I’m posting this journal the day after my first non-writing day. However, this is a common occurrence in NaNo. Life happens, whether it’s a family or work crisis, a commitment you made before NaNo began, or just that you need a day of downtime. It was an unexpected freelance contract in this case, but it could have been any of the above, and may still be as my mother is heading in for knee surgery this month (she’s got a house full already so has declined my offer to come keep her company, but she might change her mind).

As I said in my comment, the trick here is to work a little extra when you can, don’t beat yourself up when things happen, and don’t make a habit of it when it does happen. With that in mind, I am committed to writing at least two thousand words today. The nice thing about this year is that two thousand mark seems to be my sweet spot. The novel is growing nicely, the characters are fun to hang out with, and every day barring yesterday, I’ve written at least the two thousand. This has not been true of every NaNo, so I’m pleased.

Date: 11/04 Total: 10347 Today: 2982

Rough morning with no sense of the story. Still don’t have a real vision of how I plan to get where I need to be in the long term, but hit a section that expanded into three scenes that wrote very well.

Date: 11/05 Total: 12440 Today: 2093

I worked on something else in the morning and we have plans this evening so I hadn’t expected to make my numbers. However, I ended up with more than the minimum due to an amusing scene which ran long.

Date: 11/06 Total: 14556 Today: 2116

Other responsibilities took up much of the day, while a migraine made me wish I could curl up and hide. However, I wasn’t going to get to sleep any time soon, so made myself a cup of black tea and gave it a go. Had to add two scenes that were logical progressions I’d skipped in the outline, but they came out well and are showing how one of the major events is likely to come about.

Date: 11/07 Total: 16635 Today: 2079

Though I didn’t get to write until far into the day because I released a new publication today, once I started writing, it came pretty easily. Not only that, but I figured out a later piece of the plot so everything comes together nicely.

Date: 11/08 Total: 19209 Today: 2574

Worked on other things and didn’t see the shape of the scenes until late in the day. I’ll have to report my count early to the NaNo site because of the graph, but I still need to finish this scene. It’s supposed to get to a point there’s no way it’ll reach, so I guess I need to add another scene to the outline. And that’s scene, just half an hour after midnight and over 500 words more. They found a bromeliad though they have no idea what that is.

Date: 11/09 Total: 21306 Today: 2097

I didn’t get the chance to write until after 10pm and my mind is spinning with a freelance project I just accepted so I thought it would be rough going. Before I knew it, things happened and off I went. Then I had about 1100 and it was too close to the 1667 to stop there. Next thing I know, I’m over 2k again. I hadn’t expected such a pace, but apparently it’s working for me, so I’m not knocking it.

Date: 11/10 Total: 21306 Today: 0

The unexpected freelance project had complications that swallowed the day, making this my first day with no progress at all. This is why I’d built up over 6k in extra words. The trick now is to neither feel like I need to make up those words (which can get overwhelming) nor let the not writing become a habit until my leeway is all gone.