My NaNoWriMo Update: Round 7, Week 2

It’s time for a NaNoWriMo update! Here’s what I’ve been up to since week one of National Novel Writing Month.

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It’s only Week 2 of National Novel Writing Month—so why does it feel like an entire month? Writing thousands of words in a week—sometimes, in a single day!—can be quite taxing, even for people like me who write for a living.

So, what do I have to report in this week’s NaNoWriMo update?

For starters, I am already daydreaming about my reward for reaching my 50K+ goal during the month of November. I plan to take up last year’s tradition of taking a week-long vacation somewhere warm between the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Like last year, I haven’t been very good about traveling. Or taking PTO. Which probably makes zero sense to my avid readers who have read so many blog posts on KLWightman.com about my travels across the country.

In the past, when My NaNoWriMo goal was writing 10 pages a week, not 10 pages a day, I would include traveling in my November list of goals.

But all my focus needs to be on completing 50,000 words for my novel project this month. Relaxing in the sun can wait until December.

My Progress

My daily goal is 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 17K word mark. Most days I wrote at least 1,700 words, usually so that I could start at a great spot in my story the following day. According to my NaNoWriMo profile writing meter, I am on par to finish by November 29.

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

My Obstacles

My workweek is usually predictable with my attendance in the office as early as 7AM with a departure between 5 and 5:30PM. Aside from a scattering of meetings and phone calls, I can be found at my desk hard at work independently or collaborating with my team collectively.

This week wasn’t one of those weeks.

Two of the five days, I attended out-of-the-office, day-long meetings where there wasn’t time to answer emails, complete projects or even glance at my phone. This must be what life is like before computers!

On top of that, I needed to swing by the BMV to renew my license and registration. Since those lines can quickly grow long, my strategy was to arrive early in hopes to leave early.

That meant three days of the week, my morning writing ritual was going to hit a speed bump. How would I recover?

For the days of day-long meetings, my solution was to wake up even earlier. I was running outside by 5:15AM and I was out the door for the day by 6:30AM. I camped out at a nearby coffeeshop to write before the workday started so that I wouldn’t wonder how I would reach word count when my focus should be undivided during these important meetings.

On the day I visited the BMV, I work up early on my one sleep-in day of the workweek and wrote. That way, I wouldn’t stress out about making word count for my NaNoWriMo project when I was already fretting about having the right paperwork.

Don’t worry. I passed!

My Successes

I’m sad to say that my NaNoWriMo writing peer is no longer participating in National Novel Writing Month. Fortunately, she is still pursuing her own creative writing projects this month and wants to cheer me on!

She initiated a writing session for us this week before the workday started. So, I reserved us a conference room hours before the work grind started, brewed a hot mug of tea and met her to write for two hours. She even brought a healthy snack of fruit to share!

While writing often ends up being a solo hobby, it’s something that you can still do alone with other writers. While this weekly NaNoWriMo update on my blog holds me accountable to participating in National Novel Writing Month, having someone in my life encourage me to keep going is invaluable and greatly appreciated.

My Goals

I plan to continue hitting a minimum daily word count of 1,667 words with a goal of reaching at least 28,400 words by this time next week.

Will I make it? Stay tuned!