Tomorrow you November novelists out there will hit the two-thirds month mark, which means time-wise you have about a week and a half to finish your 50K novel. Doesn't sound like a lot of time to complete a whole book, does it?
Perspective is a funny thing, and never more so than when you count things. That week-and-a-half you have left to finish your NaNo novel? Equals more time than you think. It's actually ten days, or 240 hours, or 144,000 minutes, or 8,640,000 seconds. Imagine if you could write one word every second; in the time you have left for NaNoWriMo you'd be able to finish 1,728,000 50K novels by November 30th (this assuming you did nothing but write a word each and every second for the next ten days.)
Fortunately you don't have to write 1,728,000 novels over the next ten days -- you have only to finish the one you've been working on all month. The other 1,727,999 novels can wait for another time. Don't you feel better now?
All kidding aside, I know how hard you NaNo'ers have been working, how tired you're probably feeling, and how much you dread/long for November 30th to arrive. It's okay to panic for a minute when you think about the time you have left, too. But just remember, every minute from now until November 30th is not just something you count; it's also a window. You can sit and stare at it, or you can open it and let the words stream in, and put them down on paper, and finish the book, and win NaNoWriMo. It is not impossible; you can do it. Count on yourself and you will.
I'm actually doing pretty good, and that is with working over 60 hours at my day job last week. I'm at 47k, and my goal is to complete my rough draft by Nov 30. That should be about 70-75k total. The great thing about this, is I have learned I can write a lot IF I get my rear in the chair and type. So if nothing else I don't have that excuse anymore. ~grins~
ReplyDeleteMelisa, your progress is awesome -- especially considering you're juggling Nano with a day job and all that overtime! Much luck with finishing out the month where you want to be with your novel. :)
DeleteI'm sitting on about 42k, so 50k in the next 10 days is no issue, but like Melissa, my goal is to finish the whole first draft, which will be more than that. Maybe 60? 65? I don't know because there's still a gaping hole where about the last third of my story has to go. I"m writing blind, knowing how the story finishes, but not knowing how to get there yet. The funny thing is, I've done Nano five times before, and most years I've been in the same situation, yet every year I have the same old panic: This is never going to work! I can't think of anything! I'll never make it!
ReplyDeleteEvery year I do, but it doesn't stop me having the same old hysterical chicken feelings now. The sky is falling! The sky is falling! I just have to ignore the inner chickens and keep writing, trusting that the story will appear -- which I'm doing, but it's stressful. Those damn inner chickens make quite a racket.
The sky threatens to keep falling no matter how many stories you write, Marina (at least that's been my personal experience.) I think a little panic is good for the soul, though -- it prevents you from slipping into complacency, maybe. Plus those extra-hard jolts of anxiety give me a chance to meditate on them and sort out the real reason for the fear, which always helps, too.
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