NaNoWriMo – New Goals

So as you can see, I’m still behind by a good chunk.  I should have completed 46,667 words by the end of today to be on pace.  As I write this post, I have 36,114 words on the page.  I am over ten thousand words behind.  Am I going to make it up?  Most likely not.

And I’m okay with that.

When I saw myself slipping further and further behind, I rearranged my priorities.  I wasn’t going to make 50,000 words, but 40,000 words would be a reachable challenge.  I won’t get a shiny finisher’s badge from the end.  But I will get a 40,000 words badge.  And 40,000 words in thirty days while working a full-time job is nothing to sneeze at.

So where did I go off track from hitting a full 50,000 words?  Several things, some which I have control over, other things not so much.  November is always a dicey month for me, full of emotional distractions and pit traps.  I had to spend some time that I could have spent writing in self-care.  Emotionally I’ve been relatively even this month, but the cost is reflected in my word count.

The other major issue was I thought that I was prepared.  I wasn’t.  I thought the outline I had would be enough for me to do the 50,000 words without going outside of it.  It quickly became clear that it wasn’t. I got bogged down by having to do research, as well as figuring out plot points that were in the section labeled “and stuff happens here” in my outline.  Both of those took time, which took away from my word count.

There were other things going on too, which I had no control over.  That didn’t stop them from messing with me and causing problems.  I’ll have to figure out ways to deal with the ones that repeat every year, but fortunately some of them will not be an issue.

So back to writing to get some more of the words out and make my new goal. And to see how close to the 50,000 I can squeak.