In pursuit of 50,000: NaNoWriMo 2021, Week One
Well, it’s been a week. And I have to say, I’m doing okay. Better than okay. Pretty damn good.
This is actually my image. What a change of pace lol.
“If you can’t think of what to write, tough luck; write anyway.”
I might be doing well, but despite that, I’m feeling anxious, but not about what you may think. As we all know, the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That’s a little over 1,600 words per day. I’m not worried about meeting this word count goal. No, what I’m worried about is exceeding it too frequently and the fact that I’m nearly halfway through while only 1/4 of the month has passed. Let’s break it down below.
As of 9 AM EST, Sunday, November 7:
Word Count: 21,962
Page Count: 68
Remaining Words Needed: 28,038
Words Per Day Needed: 1,172
Average Words Per Day: 3,660
Days Remaining: 23
So what am I worried about? I’m way ahead of schedule, and at this rate, I’m set to reach 50,000 words on November 14 (one week from now!).
To be completely honest, I’m not sure what I’m worried about. But what I do know is that I’m pretty far ahead of other writers. And that makes me anxious. Should it be taking me a long time to write this book? What does that say about the quality of my writing? In short, what’s wrong with me that I’m so far ahead????
Lol. Nothing like good old anxiety to ruin an awesome thing. I don’t like being ahead. It makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong. I don’t like being behind. It affirms that I’m definitely doing something wrong.
It also makes me question the quality of my writing. I don’t expect my writing to be some gorgeous masterpiece, ready for printing after I’ve finished the first draft. But I do expect a story I can chisel away at. I expect there to be something worth telling hidden in the mess of it.
Photo by @amaury_guti from Unsplash.
I hope there is. In fact, I’m almost sure of it. But it’s hard to see the big picture of it when I’m neck-deep in the thick of it. And, the most important thing — I’m enjoying writing this book. Sometimes I treat my fiction writing as a career instead of a passion, and while I want to write full-time, I think it’s also important to remember that fiction was first and foremost a passion, something I love to do, and in order for it to continue to be good, I need to retain that love and passion.
If you’ll remember, last year when I was giving my updates, I gave specific goals for the next week and things I learned while writing this week. To keep with that theme, here are some things I learned while writing:
Character differentiation (esp. vocal and dialogue differentiation) is hard.
It is necessary to separate action with description, and it’s even more important to space those things correctly. Usually, I’m pretty good at this naturally, but it’s important to be cognizant of it as well.
Take notes through your WIP. Take notes in a journal or in comments on your document. Or else you will forget what you wanted to edit later, and it will haunt you for the rest of your life.
Some goals for next week:
Keep enjoying the process.
Ignore that anxious energy. My writing is my writing and it doesn’t matter where anyone else is in the process.
Drink more water, god damn it.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? How’s your WIP going so far? Any tips or tricks you want to share? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Something cool I’ll be doing at the end of this month is sharing a sneak peek of my WIP on my Patreon! I’ll be posting a short snippet from what I’ve written so far, exclusive to my Patreons at the $12/month tier. I offer a lot of cool benefits at the other tiers as well, so be sure to check that out.
