Week two of NaNoWriMo and I’m still chugging along. In fact, am slightly ahead of pace, having cleared 25,000 words on the 13th. I expect to lose a few days as we get closer to Thanksgiving in the US, so I’m hoarding extra words against the times that I know I will be unable to write. I have a feeling like there is a plot-related flaw in what I have written, but I haven’t found it yet. It’s more an annoyance at this point than a worry. My subconscious will bring it to light eventually.
I’m finding my big issue at the moment is dealing with distractions. Random ideas for short stories and novels pop in my head, calling in their most seductive voice, “write me.” My to-do list for Christmas gifts insists on growing. Then there are the time-sucks that is Twitter and Facebook. All this happens after putting in eight hours at the day job and several hours dealing with the things that Mom needs me to do. The urge to sit down and vegetate in front of the screen for several hours.
The thing that is keeping my fingers on the keyboard is my hatred of red numbers. Not the color red itself, just red numbers.
I have a spreadsheet set up to track how many words I have written per day. I set it up so I can see what my patterns are for writing stories, novels, and blog posts over the course of the year. I added conditional formatting. If I enter a number less than 1667, the font automatically displays the number in red. My goal is to have more black than red on the page. To my amazement, it worked. I focused on making the red number turn black, and the rest of the distractions faded away.
What works for me may not work for you. Find that one trick. Sit down, focus, and just write.