2739 words

Four days in and both NaNo and 2739 words are not going as planned. I can’t seem to settle on the path I want my nano novel to take and finding time to otherwise crank out words is a challenge.  I am not giving up - far from it - I am however being realistic about my time and goals and am not going to be too hard on myself if I don’t meet the prescribed daily goals. Between NaNo and 2739 the NaNo goals are more time sensitive since that project wraps up November 30 at 11:59:59 while 2739 has another 335 days to go. I remember writing papers in grad school that had to be 10-20 pages and thinking that was impossible. I would do my reading and research and outline and even write a (very) rough draft or two and then, usually late one night in the library or computer lab, I would hit a groove and the words would start flowing and before I knew it I had reached or surpassed my goal.   That’s where I’m at with both nano and 2739. Plus, fiction is easier than academic w...

I have always dabbled with writing. journaling. blogging. Wrote countless bits of plot or dialog and even went so far as to outline a few book ideas.  Started NaNo once but only made it a couple days before the idea of 1,666 words a day was too overwhelming and I returned to the mind numbing  infinite scroll of social media. Around September of 2018 i was in a Slack chat with a writer friend and we thought of Scriptober and (at least I) had grand visions of it being a complementary and warm up writing event before NaNo. I bought the domain name and secured the social media handles immediately in case I had to come up with another name.  October 2018 came and went and I didn’t write a script.  NaNo 2018 came and went and I didn’t write a novel. Not even a bad one.  Fast forward a few months and my wife and I welcomed the most perfect and beautiful baby girl.  I started writing on my subway commute every day and quickly - and pretty effortl...