November 2022: Update 5
It's November 30th as I write this (but you won't see this until December 1st), and it's been a busy week.
We celebrated a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner with my side of the family on Saturday (something my mother calls Thankful Dinner). My daughter got sick while my son continued to recover all weekend. Everyone was well enough to go back to school on Monday (thankfully) and so back into the swing of busy week days we went.
Then, last night, my poor baby fell backwards in his room, bumped his head against the edge of the door, and cut the back of head. Thank goodness, it was just his skin was cut and not a serious injury requiring a trip to the emergency room. But we still called grandma, who's a nurse at our local hospital, to come take a look.
After some hydrogen peroxide, a little bit of hair shaved off, some surgical tape, and some surgical glue, my little boy's all patched up. Of course, the back of his head has a small bald spot and it looks like he smushed purple slim in his hair, but that's no big deal in the end.
Grandma didn't leave until 10 p.m. last night, and my bed was calling me. So any dreams of doing some "catch-up writing" went swiftly down the tubes. #authormomlife
But still, despite the excitement of the last several days, today is the last day of NaNoWriMo.
Did I win Wrimo?
Hell no. Didn't even come close. But I saw that writing on the wall way back after starting Wrimo a full week behind schedule.
Did I hit my much smaller, personal goal of 25k words?
That would be a hell yes!
And so, here's how it broke down this week:
November 25: 0
November 26: 0
November 27: 776
November 28: 2,689
November 29: 170
November 30: 2,150
Subtotal: 5,785
NaNo Total: 26,938
Although NaNo started off real rough for me, I still got lots of great writing done that I'm really proud of. I may not have won Wrimo, but I hit the 50% mark, and that feels really good.
Some NaNo Reflections
This year was my first attempt at doing NaNoWriMo. I did Camp Wrimo over the summer as a way to help encourage me to edit book 1 of my current series. But I had never tried the infamous NaNoWriMo. I wanted to, of course, but something always came up and got in the way. And this year was no different.
Starting a full week late would have been my excuse for not even trying any year before this. Or simply looking at the calendar and noticing all the days I would be busy on trips or enjoying holiday stuff would have scared me off from attempting it.
This year, however, was different. This year, I made a commitment to myself to try, no matter how absurd the goal may feel, but to try. And I'm so glad I did.
Focusing on just getting words on the page felt so good. Keeping track of words written each day and watching that word count climb was so motivating and enticing.
As much as it felt a little cra-cra to try and write 50k words in one month, I'm glad that I went for it. I got a HUGE jumpstart on my current WIP, and the story is getting clearer and clearer for me.
I would encourage any writer to give it a try. Don't worry about the 50k goal, just focus on getting those words on the page, on developing your story, and getting it done.
With that said, congrats to all the 2022 NaNoWriMo Winners! And great work to all of those who tried.