On determination, motivation, and drive - NaNoWriMo 2014

So on Day 18 of NaNoWriMo, I'm finally feeling like I've caught up, at least in regards to the word count. I hit the 30K mark just a couple of hours past midnight on 11/19. Not bad since at one point, I was 4666 words behind. I have two more weekends ahead of me, one of which is a 4-day weekend with no big travel plans this year. It's like gaining 2.5 writing days over previous years (days lost to Thanksgiving travel plans)!

This year, I'd not planned to do Nano. I'm buying a house and my husband and I are packing up our apartment to move. Our original move date was the end of November, meaning NaNo was going to be too much to handle along with packing, cleaning, and unpacking. But then, a good friend of mine decided at the last minute to throw his hat in. And something in me thought, "I can't let him do it on his own." So I decided, on Oct 30, to throw my hat in as well. And in doing so, we convinced two other local friends to do it with us. In 2013, I'd convinced a long distance friend to throw her hat in and she won it. I was glad to see that she was going to attempt it again.

As you can see, I was off to a slow start -

In fact, on Day 5, 2013, I was closer to reaching the goal of the day, but then followed several days of 0 progress, and I just lost momentum after that. I didn't make time every day and life stuff like going to IKEA got in the way. Sometime around day 10, I'd mostly given up. I was struggling with the work and because the 50K was no longer the finish line, I relaxed. I skipped days in writing, or sometimes just wrote 500 words and it was enough. By day 20, I let life take over and sidelined the story.

This year, despite falling behind, I maintained momentum so that catching up with an all-night writing binge was still feasible. My biggest motivation for keeping it up? My friends. I have some writing buddies that were falling behind, like me. I didn't want them to give up, so I couldn't give up. I wanted to set a good example - lead by doing. My second biggest motivation is the fact that I'm 1 for 2. I have a 50% success rate with NaNo and I want to improve it.

The third, and arguably the most important point of motivation is the book itself. Prior to going this particular direction with it, in a semi-pantsing NaNo strategy, I was stuck because I was overthinking it. I'd written some scenes that may or may not get included in this book, but it's going in a direction that feels good and natural. I've come up with potential plot twists that excite me, and I've fallen in love with these characters again.

And this NaNo, I'm determined to finish. I'm going to finish alongside a good friend that I encouraged to participate. I'm going to keep going and finish, even if it's passed Nov 30, because abandoning your work before Nov 30 or 50K sucks. I felt like I'd abandoned the work in 2013, and I'm determined to not do it again, so every day I will write as much as I can to keep the gap from getting too big. Marathon catch-up weekend all nighters will get me the word count I need.

I'm driven to get this done, and to show myself that I can do it a 2nd time.

Disclaimer: The 2013 story, like my 2014 story, was supposed to be a sequel to the book I wrote in 2012. 2013 followed one of 2 characters in Bk1 and I wrote 15K. 2014 follows the other character. I don't plan on using the words written in 2013 towards the 2014 NaNo, but I've not yet decided if I want to merge the two after NaNo 2014 is done. I plan on figuring out what's best for the story later. :) 

Nano 2014

We're nearly done with week one of Nano, and man, what a week.

I initially hadn't planned on participating this year because of the pending home move (and all the details that goes with that), but one of my closest friends decided that he's going to do it... and I couldn't let him go at it with only online support. The community nature coupled with the "official-ness" of the Nov NaNoWriMo seems to foster a lot of the motivation to keep writing the same way having a workout partner helps motivate a person training for a marathon or trying to get into a fitness routine.

So, on Oct 31, I decided to jump on the NaNo wagon... and convinced 2 other writer friends of mine to do it as well. This is the first NaNo where I can turn a small part of my regular social group and make writing the activity that we do. I'm really excited at the support, and I'm looking forward to keeping up with my writing buddies. Since I've won one of the two Nanos I've attempted, I've been able to reflect and see what worked for me... and what didn't work. I'm glad for the opportunity to pass on my experiences and encouragement. I'm a firm believer of taking one's own advice, so I'm doubling my efforts and commitment to Nano this year because so many of my friends are doing it.

Maybe in Dec, we'll help each other edit.