Yes, month. Yes, whole novel.
When three of my PressReader colleagues said they were taking on the 50,000-words-in-30-days challenge, and wanted me to join, I panicked.
Me? The gal who took over three years to write her first novel. Me? The gal who has yet to choose a publisher. Me? The gal who is still tweaking, grimacing, and obsessing over her final draft?
Yes, me. I’m that gal.
It was brought to my attention that this might be the exact undertaking my type-A, perfectionist self needed. The whole idea behind NaNoWriMo isn’t to write the next NYT best seller. NaNoWriMo is an exercise in getting sh*t done. So with fear neurons firing in my brain I took a breath and jumped in.
The first half of November has passed, and I should tell you: I’m failing.
I’m supposed to be on the high-side of 25,000. And, well, I’m… not. I’m just about at 10,000 and while that’s under target I’m surprisingly ok. Writing under the pressure of a time-crunch has never been my forte, and not only am I not beating myself up, I’m actually happy with my progress.
Whoa.
The lesson here? It’s alright to not be perfect. Did I really just type that? Yeah, and I’m embracing it.
That said, this is about 250 words I should have written into my story. Whoops.
