NaNoWriMo Day 2: I’m Already Ahead (But I’m Not Going to Let it Go to My Head)

Day 1: I woke up. I wrote.

It’s quite surprising to find that, when I put my mind to it, I can actually accomplish something! Well, it’s really all about having the discipline to make something happen. This is how I’m seeing this year’s NaNoWriMo- I’ve decided to have the discipline it takes to complete the goal for each day. How do you write a 50,000 word rough draft of a novel? You break it down by how many words per day that you have to have. In this case, it takes a minimum of 1,667 words every day to get all the words in by 11:59pm November 30th. For me, since I did plan and do a basic outline per chapter/story, it comes to a little over an hour of writing. My goal is to write more than that over several days. I’ve been writing this paragraph for about three minutes and right here…that’s 148 words. It is that easy! And…it is only Day 2, so I may be getting ahead of myself with the back patting.
The hardest part I’m finding for this whole process is not just doing the writing, its making the time to write. For me, I have to get up extra early—by 5am—to get things done. I’m most creative when I’m not tired, and I absolutely love sleeping, so going to bed early is a must. You may wonder, when do I socialize if I’m in bed by 9pm? Well, when do most people who keep regular hour jobs socialize? On the weekends!
I think the other disciplinary action I have to take with this is to try not to edit while I write. Editing breaks the flow of ideas, which will definitely impact the word count. It also takes up precious time that I could be working on something else.
My goal with doing NaNo for this year is to see exactly how much I can get done by doing the minimum, or close to it, a day. There are a few days, like on Fridays when I meet with Shut Up and Write, that I know I will bust those numbers and possibly double them. That’s okay, because that will help me down the road when Thanksgiving break comes and I want to have a bit of fun.
My hope in doing the 5am writings will be to help me get back into an early morning writing habit by the end of the month. To know that if I actually try, I can get the majority of a novel rough draft written in one month of disciplined writing. If I can do that, there is no reason why I couldn’t do it every month.

Join me over on the Rachel Pilcher Writing Workshops Facebook page  on November 4th at 6pm CST for Facebook Live Episode 15, where I’ll be discussing more about my writing process, which includes what I’m doing for NaNoWriMo! I hope to see you there!