Another Friday, another NaNoWriMo recap for you! As expected, I took a day off from writing this week and while I’m glad I did that because I most assuredly needed it, I do feel like my momentum has shifted a bit and it’s making me a little wary about how I’ll handle motivation in December. My goal is to spend December finishing up the novel (I’ll likely have at least 30k more words to write), so here’s hoping I can make that happen!

Anyway, onto week three! Here are my recaps:

Day 15

• Goal: 2,000 words
• Actual: 2,040 words

As an Enneagram 9, one of the things I really struggle with is inertia. Mostly, it’s hard for me to get started on a task. Once I’m immersed in it, I’m fine and it’s hard to drag me away… it’s just the getting there that’s hard. Procrastination is the name of my game. I felt this inertia problem hard tonight as I worked on my writing. I had to really force myself to pick up my laptop and write. But I did it, in two 30-minute time blocks (and I took a break between them to make cookies, which was an A+ decision). I’m happy with what I wrote today, too. It was a good scene and fun to write! Let’s hope the rest of my writing week is just as much fun!

Day 16

• Goal: 2,000 words
• Actual: 2,052 words
• Things researched: real estate development

Another pretty great writing day! As always, I struggled with the novel at the beginning of my writing session. (Lots of, “Ugh, you’re fooling yourself if you think this novel could ever be published” thoughts.) But I pushed through the self-doubt and mean thoughts and wound up having a lot of fun with one particular scene.

I feel so motivated to get my word count done, even if it does take me some time to actually do it. I went to a fun event this afternoon and afterward, my mom invited me out to dinner but it was nearing 6 p.m. and I hadn’t started writing yet. I knew the more responsible thing was to go home, eat something quick, and get my words done. So that’s what I did – any other month and I would have blown off my writing goal. There’s just something about NaNoWriMo! I’m actually feeling a little nervous about not having it to motivate me when December rolls around.

Day 17

• Goal: 2,000 words
• Actual: 2,080 words
• Things researched: different facial expressions

Today was a great writing day! I waited until the end of the day to write when I should have done it in the morning as I was just lazing around and then spent the rest of the day procrastinating about getting it done. But, I did it! It went pretty quickly, too. Maybe a little over an hour to write 2,000+ words so I’m happy about that. I’m currently on track to finish by Nov. 24th so I think I’m definitely going to give myself a day off sometime this week. I think I’ve earned it!

Day 18

• Goal: 1,500 words
• Actual: 1,617 words

I wrote these words before work and I definitely thought my alarm was messing with me when it went off at 4:45AM this morning. Alas, it was not! I was a sleepy girl as I wrote but I got it all down and most of it wasn’t half bad. Still, it took me about the same amount of time to write 1,600 words as it took me to write 2,000 words last night so that’s pretty telling. But I’m done for the day and I can feel good about that!

Day 19

• Goal: 1,500 words
• Actual: 0 words

My first goose-egg of the challenge! I planned to take a day off this week and Tuesday seemed like a good day to do it. It allowed me to sleep in (until 5:30am, haha) and just have a day where I didn’t have to think about my novel. It was a good break, but I definitely felt a little guilty about not writing today and wondering if it would affect my momentum. Time will tell!

Day 20

• Goal: 1,500 words
• Actual: 1,553 words

I got this done before work and man, was I sleepy while writing it! I finally had the good sense to make myself iced coffee, which gave me the kick in the pants I needed. It was a pretty easy writing day – took about 45 minutes to get these words done and I’m happy with what I wrote. Although I forgot the name of a semi-minor character and didn’t feel like searching my document for the name I gave him originally so I made up a new name for him. Must remember to go back and change it! Remembering the names of minor characters is harder than you’d think! I also find myself mixing up the names of my main character and her closest female friend a lot, which is problematic since my main character is dating her friend’s brother. That could get dicey. 😉

Day 21

• Goal: 1,500 words
• Actual: 1,194 words

Oh boy, I was just not interested in writing today. I really had to force myself to sit down and write and then I made a deal with myself that I only had to write to two full pages. It’s under my goal but it’s still forward progress! To prepare to write today, I read back through some of what I wrote yesterday and, y’all, it’s total garbage. Ha. Like, I’d probably abandon the romance novel if I was reading it myself. EEKS. I’m trying to take deep breaths and remember it’s okay. It’s supposed to be trash during the first draft and I will be able to spend lots of time revising it and making it sound much better. Also, I wrote it at 5am yesterday when I was half asleep. I was pretty positive I wasn’t writing award-winning prose then.

My goal is to finish the challenge by Wednesday, which means I need to write around 2,000 words a day from now until then. My weekend is relatively plan-less and the first part of the week is, too, so fingers crossed I can make it happen! (And am much more inspired to write than I was today!)

Total word count after week 3: 39,934 (80%)

Week two is in the books! I was a little worried about this week because I thought I was losing steam, but I think the fact that I’m keeping myself accountable through these weekly posts, and my daily posts to Instagram Stories about my progress, is helping immensely. And because I really want to finish my novel this year! Next week is going to be a bit difficult since I have plans more nights than not, which means lots of early mornings and lunchtime writing! But I’ll get it done. (Hopefully. And if not, I’m way ahead of where I need to be so I can take a day or two off without falling completely behind.)

Here’s my week two report!

Day 8

• Goal: 2,000 words
• Actual: 2,555 words
• Things researched: most iconic BSC books

Y’all. Today was one of the first days when I was just bored by my story. I’ve had really good days and really hard days and today was neither of those. I was just… bored by writing. I’m not sure why, although the majority of the scenes I wrote today involved my character doing a lot of mundane tasks, so that’s probably why. It wasn’t about moving the romance along or the story arc – just a scene where my character was doing normal, daily life things. Who knows if I’ll even keep these scenes but they seem important to write for now. Hopefully, tomorrow’s writing will be a lot more fun!

Day 9

• Goal: 2,000 words
• Actual: 2,021 words
• Things researched: developmental delays, breakdown of generations, best high fantasy series

Today went much better than yesterday, although the scene I wrote is going to need a lot of work. I’m worried I made one of the characters a little too much of a caricature of a condescending white man, but maybe not! 😉 I’m also loving the scenes between my main character and her friends. They’re so fun to write! They require a lot of dialogue, but I love watching their personalities come to life!

I’m almost at 20k words written for the month, which is CRAZY! It’s amazing how much writing I can do when I’m focused. I was writing maybe 4-5k a MONTH previously. (And sometimes, not even close to that.)

Day 10

• Goal: 2,000 words
• Actual: 2,021 words (<– howwww did I write the same exact number as the day before?!)
• Things researched: bar stool bottom (I was drawing a blank on the word “footrest,” sigh), dumb trivia names, british literature trivia questions, british names

Oh boy, Sundays are going to be a tough writing day for me! I finished up my word count a little after 10:30 p.m. and am planning to wake up early tomorrow to do my writing… which is in less than seven hours. Eeks.

I spent part of the morning outlining the next few chapters of my novel and ooh, we’re getting to some good parts! I’m really excited about the next few scenes and everything my characters are going to get to experience. After coming home from spending the day at my mom’s watching football, I worked on my novel. It felt like it took FOREVER to get to my 2k word count goal, but I finally did it and now I am sooo ready for bed. No reading in bed for me tonight – it’s lights out in 3… 2… 1…

Day 11

• Goal: 2,000 words
• Actual: 2,044 words

Another early-morning writing session for me! And another day when writing just felt like a struggle. It felt like it took forever for me to get to 2,000 words. (At one point, I was certain I had to have hit my word count goal… and I was 500 words away. NOOOO.) This week, I stopped using a timer for getting my writing done. Instead, I’ve been trying to write to the end of the page and then give myself a tiny break. I think, though, it’s making the writing take much longer and be way more of a struggle. I’m definitely going back to the timer tomorrow!

Day 12

• Goal: 2,000 words
• Actual: 2,017 words

You guys, I was so tired today while I was writing. I woke up at 4:45AM so I could go to the gym for an early-morning BodyPump class and then had a full day at work. I got home around 6:30PM and it was pitch black outside and all I wanted to do was take a bubble bath and go to bed. Alas, I did not. Instead, I gave my kitties some love and then opened my laptop, set a timer for 30 minutes, and wrote. It was one of those writing sessions where I just kept thinking, “What are you even trying to write a novel? This is such a stupid goal. There are so many better ways to spend your time.” THANKS, BRAIN. Just what I need!

After the 30 minutes were up, I made dinner, ate, and then sat down to write. My plan was to write to the end of the page and then take a break, but when I got to the end of the page, I needed less than 250 words to hit my goal so I decided to keep writing. Finished right before 9 – woop! Done and done.

(Also, the second part of my writing time went MUCH better than the first part. Brain was surprisingly quiet! Maybe it just needed to eat? Heh.)

Day 13

• Goal: 2,000 words
• Actual: 2,040 words

I wrote the first 1k words before work, and it went fairly well. It wasn’t too much of a struggle to write, which was nice! I planned to finish the rest of it at night. I had a hair appointment after work so I got home around 7:30 and was so tired that I contemplated calling it ‘good’ for the day. I just wanted to eat dinner and go to bed. (I’m not sure if it’s all this creative output, the earlier mornings, or the time change, but I have been exhausted this week!) Alas, after eating, I had a burst of energy so I decided to write! I felt good about getting it done, much better than I would have felt if I hadn’t.

Day 14

• Goal: 2,000 words
• Actual: 2,080 words

I wrote all of these words before I started my workday (worked from home today). It went okay, but not as great as I hoped. Writing in the mornings has been a real struggle for me lately. There’s too much happening in my brain at that time – I’m concerned about my day and to-do list. At night, my brain is quieter and I’m in my wind-down phase so it’s easier to focus. At least, that’s how it seems to me.

I got distracted a lot this morning as I was trying to write, thinking about the arc of my novel and some of the dark moments that need to happen to get to the final conclusion. It made me feel like ripping my entire novel apart as I recognized some very big plot details I’ll need to include during revisions! Argh. Writing is such a goddamn struggle of the mind.

I reached the end of my plot timeline with this morning’s writing session, so I spent some time today writing a few more scenes for the novel. It’s all taking shape! I still have a long way to go, but I finally feel like I’ve hit the midpoint of my novel, and now’s the time to bring everything together. Exciting!

Total word count for week 2: 29,390 (59%)

Happy Friday! We’re officially one week into NaNoWriMo – how’s it going for everyone? I’m pleasantly surprised at how easily I’m finding the time to write and how fun the writing process has been so far. That said, I had to seriously force myself to sit down and write last night so we’ll see how this weekend goes. Eeks!

Let’s dive into my daily recaps. I wrote these in real time, right after finishing my word count each day so you’ll get my on-the-spot feelings and the roller coaster of emotion I felt!

Day 1

• Goal: 3,000 words
• Actual: 3,186 words
• Things researched: fun frozen yogurt flavors, bookstore and library collaborations

My first day was wonderful! I wrote in the evening, as I had no plans and it was a really lovely way to spend a Friday evening. I was banging out my words like it was nothing. I work best in increments, so I set a timer for 30 minutes and forced myself to write, write, write with no distractions. When the timer was up, I let myself have a little break of maybe 15-20 minutes and then it was back to my WIP and another 30-minute timer. It took me about 1.5 hours to write 3,000+ words, which was my goal for today, and I ended the day feeling super confident in my story and my ability to continue this challenge. If only every writing day was so uncomplicated and fun!

Day 2

• Goal: 3,000 words
• Actual: 3,048 words

Oh boy, day 2 was about the total opposite of day 1 for me. Every sentence felt like a struggle. The writing felt really, really hard and I had to keep reminding myself that that is okay. It’s part of the process. And all that matters is writing the words, not making sure they are masterpiece sentences. I know I have a long road ahead of me in terms of editing but I just need to get the story on the paper (er, screen). I can fix everything later. I know every day won’t be a struggle like this, but it sucks when they come so quickly into the challenge.

Day 3

• Goal: 3,000 words
• Actual: 2,150
• Things researched: sexy book titles, georgia cities

I worked in three 30-minute chunks today. The first 30-minute chunk was in the morning and I spent it outlining the next few scenes of my novel. I am so glad I am outlining this way (a little bit at a time, rather than all at once) because after spending lots of time with my characters over the past few days, I came up with a really crucial plot element that wasn’t even on my mind a few weeks ago.

I did the next two 30-minute chunks when I came home after spending the afternoon watching football with my family. I usually use this time to frantically get ready for the week but instead, I chose to write and then frantically get ready for the week. Hooray! 🙂 But it reminded me just how easy it is for me to justify sitting down for an hour in the evening and writing, even when I have a busy day. That’s what I love about NaNoWriMo – it forces me to find the time!

While I didn’t meet my word count goal (which is fine, I’m way ahead of where I need to be right now), I did find the writing to come soooo easily for me today. Which was much appreciated after having such a terrible time writing yesterday! The whole thing was just flowing and feeling so good. I love these days! More of these days, please!

Day 4

• Goal: 1,500 words
• Actual: 1,632 words
• Things researched: is red or white wine better for you, fancy beers, fancy vegetarian meals

Another pretty great writing day! I wrote a little above my goal, which is always nice. I wrote these words after work, writing in a 20-minute burst when I got home and then finishing up my word count goal after eating dinner. It was surprisingly easy and the words flowed pretty well. I also wrote a line that had me laughing out loud as I wrote it – a new experience for me! Haha. It’s super clever if I do say so myself. 😉

Day 5

• Goal: 1,500 words
• Actual: 1,540 words

Another easy writing day is in the books! I got this done in just under 40 minutes right after work, and it was smooth sailing from beginning to end. I like it when I can just sink right into my story and don’t even look up from the page until my timer dings.

Today was definitely a day about planning: I knew I’d be spending time writing after work so I spent my lunch break working on the blog post I published on Wednesday, and I also had to turn my mom down for dinner (we’re going out tomorrow, and since I know that beforehand, I can do my writing before work and/or on my lunch break). There’s no spontaneity during NaNoWriMo! That’s for sure. And I’m reading sooo much less because once I get into bed, I’ve got about five minutes before I’m dead asleep. Sacrifices!

Day 6

• Goal: 1,500 words
• Actual: 1,543 words
• Things researched: IKEA in Georgia

I wrote all of these words before work, and it was more of a struggle than the past few days have been. The words came fairly easily but I could tell that the majority of what I was writing was utter crap. But hey, that’s okay! Shitty first drafts and all that. And I felt like I kept checking the word count, convinced I had met my goal, and I still had more words to write. At one point, I was 50 words away from meeting my goal and I whined to Eloise who was sitting next to me about it. She had no empathy for me, sigh. 😉 I got the words down, though, and I’m coming to a real fun part of the story: the first kiss between my two main characters! Ooh la la. I’ll most likely write that scene tomorrow!

Day 7

• Goal: 1,500 words
• Actual: 1,513 words
• Things researched: what’s the noise you hear at night

Oh boy, I did not want to write today! I worked from home so I think it was just the fact that I was at home and kinda just wanted to curl up on my bed and read for the whole evening when I finished my workday. (I haven’t had much time to read this week and I’m missing it!) But I let myself read for about 30 minutes and told myself I had to start writing after that. I made dinner and as it was cooking, I wrote around 500 words, then ate, and brought my laptop to my bed to write the remainder.

The writing itself was a bit more difficult today – so difficult that I started the fun line of questioning myself. “I’m crazy to think I can write a novel!” “This whole scene is so boring.” “Nobody’s going to believe my characters have the hots for each other.” “This is stupid. I should just stop.”

But I pushed myself through it! “This is a normal line of thinking!” “Even Taylor Jenkins Reid wants to throw her writing in a fire at times!” “It’s supposed to be shitty. You can spice it up when you’re revising.” And on and on and on.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned in therapy is to challenge my thinking. Whenever a bad thought pops into my head, I can challenge it. “What’s the evidence that it’s true? What does it mean if it is true? What does it mean if it’s not true?” etc. It’s good for thoughts like, “I’m a bad friend” or “I’m terrible at my job,” as well as these thoughts that pop into my head while I’m writing.

And it worked! Because I was able to steer my thinking away from all that negativity and write some pretty good scenes. (We’ll see how great a few months from now when I’m editing, heh.) And I got to write the kissing scene, which was a blast. Things are hap-hap-happening for my characters!

Wins all around! See what happens when you do the thing you don’t want to do because you promised yourself you would? Breakthroughs!

Total word count for week 1: 14,612 words (29%)

Happy first day of November, my friends!

November is my favorite month because it plays host to one of my favorite holidays – Thanksgiving – and it’s my birthday month. (Which is on Thanksgiving this year! Yay!)

And November is the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I’ve been planning for NaNoWriMo all year long and now that it’s here, I’m feeling both nervous and excited.

I’m nervous that I won’t be up for the challenge. I’m nervous about failing. I’m worried about falling behind early in the month and not being able to get back on track. It’s a big order, you know? To write 50,000 words in a month. It will require waking up early, staying up late, saying no to plans with friends, and giving up a lot of my free time. Not to mention, my writing partner is due with a wee baby this month (!), so writing dates will be put on hold for the foreseeable future. (In their place: infant snuggles!)

I’m also so very excited about NaNoWriMo, though. I’m excited about spending lots and lots of time with my characters and in this world I’m creating. I’m excited because I love writing more than anything and I can’t wait to spend all of my free time doing so. And I feel good about my current work-in-progress (WIP). It’s a good story. The plot is strong, the characters are fully developed, and the romance makes sense. It’s a story that I will be able to see through to the end – and then past that, through the editing and revising and publishing process. (Fingers crossed, knock on wood, and all that.)

To help me through this month, I created a calendar. This calendar has my whole month figured out from a word count standpoint. My goal is to write the majority of my words on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays (I’m alternating between 3,000 words per day and 2,000 words per day each weekend) and then give myself a bit of a breather on weekdays (1,500 words per day). I also really want to finish the challenge before the last week of the month, since Thanksgiving week is always pretty crazy. I have myself writing 500 words on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday of that week but I’m hoping to be done by the 24th. (When I completed the challenge back in 2012, I finished in 21 days so that’s not an impossibility!)

So, here we go. November 1st. The start of NaNoWriMo. I’ll be providing weekly updates on my progress because I’m an Obliger (another Gretchen Rubin personality type) and I need the outward accountability. I’ll see you in a week, where hopefully – per my calendar – I will be 15,000+ words into this challenge.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? How do you feel about writing – love it or hate it?