My NaNoWriMo: Round 6, Week 2

Week 2 of National Novel Writing Month—and it already feels like an entire month! This week, I’ve written thousands of words, discovered a writing strategy to keep me on track and am surprised by how well this story is shaping (even though several rounds of edits are in my future).

So, what have I been up to this week when it comes to My NaNoWriMo?

I’m putting this in writing so that I don’t back out.

I plan to reward myself for reaching my 50K+ goal during the month of November with a mini-vacation during the month of December. And I’m not talking about Christmas or New Years Eve.

Those that know me will say that I haven’t been very good about traveling. Or taking PTO. And for those that have read my blog posts over the years, this doesn’t make sense when I have so many posts about my travels across the country.

In fact, I once tried to incorporate more travel within My NaNoWriMo goals. But that was when my goal was to write 10 pages a week, not 10 pages a day.

Over the last year, I have reassessed my commitments so that I can achieve other goals, especially with my career and my writing. And that sometimes means putting things like weekend road trips on hold so that I can accomplish things I have been too scared to do like write a novel in my spare time.

So, let’s get to it. This will be the only post where I talk about my travels as well as how well I did with keeping up with my goals this NaNoWriMo.

My Progress

It’s my daily goal to at least maintain a minimum of 1,667 words so that I can reach 50K words by November 30. But we all know my real goal is exceed this every day.

Since last week, I am over the 20K word mark. Most days I wrote at least 1,800 words, mostly so that I could be at a great launching point for the next day. According to my NaNoWriMo profile writing meter, I am on par to finish by November 27.

Not bad for the second week of National Novel Writing Month!

My Obstacles

It’s rare that I travel for work, but this past week was one of those rare moments. Most of the workweek, I found myself crossing the country by plane, attending day-long sessions and networking with partners in the evenings. I made sure there was time to see some of my family the evening prior to the events.

Even though I wasn’t in the office, I’d say I had a productive week.

I was nervous about the arrival of this conference once I fully committed to NaNoWriMo. Would I have time to write with back-to-back events from morning until night? Would I fall behind on my word count?

My Successes

Some would say that I’m too committed to my running schedule. And I must admit that I have a hard time missing a daily run, no matter how lazy or tired I feel. When I reviewed how crazy my work schedule was going to be this week with the travel and events, I decided not to lace up my new running shoes.

Doesn’t mean I didn’t pack them. Just in case.

Even though I was tired, I still set my alarm hours before the day’s events so that I could make time to reach my word count and take care of some work requests before the day officially began.

Thank goodness for in-room coffee and nearby charging outlets.

On our travel days, I had some extra time while mid-air. I saved my airport waiting time when Wi-Fi was accessible for work-related tasks and spent my time during my flights writing.

My Goals

I plan to continue hitting a minimum daily word count of 1,667 words with a goal of reaching at least 32,100 words by this time next week.

Will I make it? Stay tuned!