Well, due to a couple Pittsburgh Arts and Lecture Series with Neil Gaiman and Tea Obreht, as well as work and general exhaustion plus trying to finish a book review that's long overdue, I've fallen at least a week behind on NaNoWriMo.
Catching up is incredibly hard. Last night, I managed to reach Tuesday's word goal. That means if I managed to write today, I'd have to write for Wednesday and Thursday, and not write today's goal until tomorrow (along with Saturday's goal). You'd think 1667 words a day wouldn't be that much. I envy the people who have massive scenes that they become swept away with, and when they're done they're a couple thousand words in without realizing it. What fun that would be. Alas, it hasn't happened yet. In order to even meet these goals I've had to sketch out ideas instead of really considering the words. It's such a different style for me.
Usually, I revise as I write so that each line is as close to being as worthwhile as possible. The whole point with NaNoWriMo is not to edit while writing; just get the story down first. And granted, without this tactic, I wouldn't have come as far as I did. And I am determined to see how far I can take it. I may not reach the 50,000 words in time, but I'll come much closer than I normally would've in a month's time.
I think the other problem I've run into is the fact that the people I started writing with have all fallen behind as well. One of my friends is long past the 50,000 mark already. The other two who kept pace (and were ahead of me) have stopped and I've surpassed them. A coworker who had been beating me also stopped because of life events, and so right now it seems that I'm the only one whose numbers seem to be growing. It takes away the drive, almost. I've lost that incentive to continue past the "I need to finish this novel." It's amazing what a little competition will do.
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