Today marks the midpoint of NaNoWriMo 2020. By the end of today, all of us NaNo traditionalists should have 25k words down in our novels. If you’re not there yet, don’t fret! It is still possible to win this thing! You’ve just got to push yourself a little bit harder than you were before.
Even if you haven’t started NaNo yet, it’s not impossible to still win it. The first year I actually managed the 50k in one month (not my first try, not by a long shot), I finished in two weeks. So, it’s definitely doable, but it will certainly be more difficult. Decide right now if you really want to do this thing, and then commit to it fully.
That’s actually what I wanted to talk about today: Commitment.
I went into NaNo this year feeling like my outline was broken and for days I wasn’t sure if I should keep on going with it or switch projects. This made the first half of NaNo much more difficult than the previous two months of doing Milwordy were, in spite of the higher word count required for Milwordy. There’s more than one reason for the difficulty I was having, but I can honestly say now that a big part of it was a commitment issue. I wasn’t feeling solid in my story. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue. And so, every day I found myself hemming and hawing about whether I was going to keep writing this particular novel. It’s shocking how much time indecision can cause you to lose
It wasn’t until after my post about the Second Week Slump and some very nice comments from a couple of readers of this blog, that I recommitted to my story. And so far, it’s been going a lot more smoothly. Currently I’m sitting at just over 31k for my NaNo novel and things are going well. I am having fun with the story, even if I know there are parts that just don’t quite work. Recommitting allowed me to have a clarity of focus on my story that I needed in order to keep writing it.
So, if you’re having trouble with NaNo right now, try to really commit yourself to the challenge. Ignore those doubts that are plaguing you. Don’t get too caught up in making a perfect manuscript. You can always fix it in revision. And don’t forget that NaNo is supposed to be fun! Commit to having fun with your writing and enjoying the process.
And please, for the love of all things fictional, backup your work!
Bonus Writing Prompt: Your character makes an embarrassing mistake in front of the person they would most like to impress. How do they deal with it?
If you’re enjoying my blog, please like, follow and share. I’d love to hear from you if you have any comments or questions. Let me know how NaNo is going for you if you’re participating!
-Robin
Rambling Robin 