NaNoWriMo Update: Week One

In an earlier post, I spoke a bit about writing a book and that I was going to be participating in NaNoWriMo. 

I wanted to give a quick update on my progress. It’s been a process. I haven’t wanted to write every day, but I have. A large point of NaNoWriMo is to write even if you’re not interested; get the words down and fix it later. 

I’m going to have a lot of fixing to do, but here’s how I’ve been doing!

There are great resources on the NaNoWriMo site itself. It shows statistics that help to track you progress, and I have found them very helpful.

Progress

This is my total word count as of today:

Here’s my overall progress so far:

So far, so good! 

Accountability

I’ve found that being accountable has been helpful. Sending updates to my writing group when I’ve made my word count has been great – and they’re so supportive that it gives me a great little boost of serotonin. 

I’ve also been posting daily updates on Twitter, so if you are interested in following those, click here. Making myself publicly accountable has pushed me to continue on with my words when I’d really rather be doing something else. 

Perseverance

This reluctance to write hasn’t been because of the story itself; I enjoy writing. I love my characters and the world they inhabit. But, unfortunately, life goes on around writing.

An author who I have followed for a while passed away, Rachel Caine. She was nice and extraordinarily resilient. Even though I never met her, I miss her a lot. I’m not quite sure when, but I will be doing a post about her which will be in a review of one of her books, Prince of Shadows.

Also this week, I’ve been more invested in the US election than I probably should have been (as someone who is neither American nor living in the US), but I am now feeling hopeful that the US will be able to rebuild and heal itself – and that all of the people who have been suffering and working towards progress will finally be able to take a breath before they take stock and move forward. 

I’m hoping that President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris will herald a kinder America, which will have echoes throughout the world, as events in the US are apt to do

Now that I’m not checking my phone every couple of minutes, I feel like the words should flow much easier.