The NaNoWriMo Challenge: Week 1 Progress

My first week of NaNoWriMo has been a success. I only skipped one day, which was last night. I took a bubble bath and read Allegiant instead, which seemed to quench my writing soul because I made up for it tonight by writing for an hour. And it was fun.

Stats for Week 1: 

• I wrote for 274 minutes, which is 4.5 hours and meets my weekly time goal. 
• I have written 6,855 words, which isn't bad considering that I have worked a full-time, exhausting job while being a Mom and a wife and still sleeping. I feel like I've maintained some balance, which is the key to everything. 

Revelations: 

• It doesn't matter what I write as long as words come out. This process is about getting the words on the screen--no matter how crappy they are. And there's some BAD STUFF going on here. But at least there's stuff to work with, and it's not just swimming in the uncertain waters of my brain.  
• December will be NaNoReMo: Re = REVISING 
• This story has a life, and if I let it just tell itself to me it will move forward. I need to GET OUT OF THE WAY. 
• I am developing some writing habits: my prime writing time is at 9:00 at night--after my girls are in bed. I snuggle up in my red chair with my Snuggie, computer, and soft music and just type. And drink hot tea. I escape into these characters. It's like reading, but I'm creating the story. 
• When I'm stuck, I write questions. Then I go back and answer them to move things along. 
• Maybe I have more discipline than I thought. 
• I can do this. Maybe. I AM doing this. 
• This is scary. And thrilling. And scary. 
• I am NOT wasting my time. 
• I am my own worst enemy. 

Inspiration: 

• My Skeeter Writing Friends are right there with me. We met today, and I just LOVE our Thursday afternoon chats. God continues to bring great people into my life, and I thank Him every day for new friendships that are forming. 
• My dear friend Russ is on this journey, too, and I am so very thankful. Our friendship of fifteen years sustains and inspires me. The process is with us... 

Thought of the Week: 

The NaNoWriMo Facebook page posted this little pep talk. I put it in a file on my computer marked READ THIS WHEN YOU DOUBT. I've read it every night before I write to silence the evil voice inside my head that says no one will care about this when it is finished--that I should be doing something better with my time: 

"Write something true. Write something frightening. Write something close to the bone. You are on this planet to tell the story of what you saw here. What you heard. What you felt. What you learned. Any effort spent in that pursuit cannot be wasted. Any way that you can tell that story more truly, more vividly, more you-ly, is the right way.

So holler. Tell it loud and tell it bright and tell it slant and tell it bold. Tell it with space whales and silent films or tell it with quiet desperation or tell it with war or tell it with dragons or tell it with tall ships or tell it with divorce in the suburbs or tell it with dancing skeletons and a kraken in the wings."

--Catherynne M. Valente

Here's to Week 2 and telling this story that wants to be told...