A premature end
I have made the decision today that I won’t complete NaNoWriMo this year. Last Sunday I was about 5000 words behind, which I was very confident I could make up and still cross the finish line of 50000 this time next week. What I didn’t schedule in was a weeks worth of illness. I suspected something was up on Monday evening when I struggled to write 1000 words, then by Tuesday I was too exhausted to do anything but sleep. By Wednesday evening I was properly ill and ever since then the writing has been non-existent. Today was the first day my head felt like it was starting to return to normal and I might be able to cope with getting back to it.
But the reality of cracking on with NaNoWriMo would mean writing 30,000 words over the next seven days. In full fitness it’s a task that would daunt me. Whilst still getting back to full health it scares me silly. Just thinking about the possibility causes me enough stress to have me ill again in a couple of days. It’s not worth it.
I hope I haven’t disappointed anyone who’s kept up with my efforts this past few weeks. I really appreciate the support from friends and fellow Wrimos. I have learned lots and as my sister said to me earlier this evening “Twenty thousand words is a huge achievement, if you hadn’t aimed for fifty thousand words you would have never written that!”
I’m still glad I tried doing NaNoWriMo. It confirmed to me that the focus of taking my writing to a professional level should be journalism to start with, rather than fiction. I get more joy from the process of writing my blog. My priority in 2010 is to turn my blog into the start of a writing career.
I will definitely take part in NaNoWriMo again and I will complete it. I don’t know whether it will be next year or in five years time. That is a decision I will have to make year-by-year depending on my other writing commitments. But there is some advice I will offer my future self before embarking on the crazy novel writing month of November:
- Take a week off work early in the month and get well ahead of the word count
- Get ahead with November deadlines at work and finish stuff by Halloween. Or put it off until December
- Get ahead of the word count before heading off on a three day conference
- Avoid anything that takes up an entire evening during the week
- Don’t get ill (I know I can’t really plan for that one!)
I am really sad you were not able to do it. I was rooting for you. I am sure you will do it next time though. If need to talk or chat to anyone about it, you can get me through twitter or facebook.
Hope you feel better soon
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