Desert of Zin

Mixed success.

Just over 13,000 words. A far cry from 50,000 but it was fun trying.

Again, real life got in the way, even during the week I took off for it.  Nevermind.   It was the best fun I’ve had writing in ages.

One thing I took from this year’s attempt was that I really need to dedicate “proper” time to my writing and by “proper” time I mean dedicating working time, that is treating it like a second job, to my writing. Especially if I want to ever think about doing it for a living.

The problem with that is, with two part time jobs and all the stuff I’ve dedicated time to in the evenings, I don’t really have the working time to spare.

Oh, hold on… I’ve just quit the job with the after-school care. Looks like I might have the time after all…

Had a day to myself today. Since my hours have been cut at the After-School care, I thought I would take the morning off and get some writing done.

This year’s NaNoWriMo progress has slowed to a crawl, but that was to be expected.

Still enjoying the process but the writing is certainly moving slowly.

Having fun and enjoying the experience, still.

Also, I have been chatting with mrBen about podcasting…

That is a plan, a vague plan at that, but still a plan dependent on me getting more work finished.

Despite the sudden pressure to get more of this year’s WriMo completed, I have been writing bits of the Desert Of Zin story and generally brainstorming other ideas. Not what I was expecting to be doing today but any creative work is good.

Day seven? Surely not!

It has been a long haul today. With church work, the after-school care and Revolution in the evening, I only got in about 8ish.

It certainly has been a long day. And all the longer with 1667 words waiting to be written.

But despite my lack of enthusiasm for the WriMo today…

1802 words today.

6863 words in total.

Bet my daily target today.

To make the 50,000 words in 30 days it’s advisable to do 1667 words a day. Today I bet that target. And I’m feeling damn good about it.

I’m feeling good about it even though meeting every daily target so far should have netted me a total of 10,000 words. And I have just over 5000 in total.

But I’m okay with that.

I’ve realized something about my writing this time round. On previous Wrimos I have tried to push the 1667 daily words from the first day. And the passion has always burnt out because I punish myself to get the daily target and feel like I’ve let myself down when I don’t get there.

I don’t enjoy the experience and I give up. But this time I’m just taking my time. It has been six days so far and I’ve hit my daily target once. And that’s okay.

I’m pacing myself. Tomorrow I might not write anything, or I might match today’s number. I just don’t know.

To try and keep the pace, I’ve taken next week off work. Even if I claw my way over the daily finishing line, I’ll be happy.

So.

1710 words today.

5061 words in total.

3351 words.

Hmm, yes.

Still not making my minimum daily target of 1667, but I’ve written more today than on any other individual day.

As long as I keep that pattern going, everything will be fine.