With November over, the official NaNoWriMo challenge is complete but my novel is far from over. I’ve been spending time thinking about how to keep the momentum. I still have lots to write and there’s lots of rewriting of the words that I have written as well. Just after I hit 50,000 words, I was already having a hard time getting behind the keyboard.
Admittedly, some of this has been life things that I had pushed aside or things that decided to push their way in but there is definitely something about a deadline that makes me write. Speaking of deadlines, my December Deadlines for Writers story is up now. This month I only had 300 words to work with, which we all know by now is harder than writing 50,000 words for me so I’m happy with how it turned out given everything that was going on in November.
I ended the month with 61,973 words and it takes me just over 1/3 of the way through my novel. I was mainly writing during sprints and just trying to download as much as I could in a short period of time writing so there will be lots of work to do. I will not only have to move things around but also a lot of rewriting and reworking the outline before I even think about editing words and sentences. That said, I can say that I’ve NEVER written this much towards a project in my life so that’s a thing. It’s also a lot easier to work with words on a page than it is to work on them in my head (I have 50+ years of experience to know this is true!)
I’ve printed out all 162 pages of writing to start the process of review and rewriting. This should give me an opportunity to shift between tasks so that I don’t get bored with either.
But the truth is, I’ve done neither in the last week.
I did rewrite and finish the Deadlines for Writers story but other than that, I have had at least a week of carrying around or planning to work on my novel without actually making any progress. (Not entirely true, I did invest in some red pens for editing and also found mechanical and erasable coloured lead pencils which I am way too excited about.)
Today I find myself reflecting and trying to come up with a plan to get things back on track. I want to use my learning – I write better with others and with deadlines – to build some accountability. It’s time to put the writing back into my calendar by signing up for more Shut Up & Write sessions. (I just shifted over to the website and RSVPed for a call in 10 minutes!)
I’ll also need to find some other life hacks to make the deadlines I set for myself more important to meet. This is still my struggle, I can make a plan, break it down but when the deadline is just one I set, it’s too easy to push it aside. I think I need to go back to what I learned earlier this year in cleaning out my office to be ready to write, just touch 5 things each day, that’s all you need to do. Most days I went further than the 5 things and it meant that no matter how unmotivated I was, I still went in and started with touching 5 things.
Time to get ready to write! How do you set your own goals and stick to them?
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