Laser-like focus

Pinch, punch it’s November 1st so for once I don’t need to struggle to think of a topic to blog about: it’s NaNoWriMo time.

I’m a firm fan of NaNoWriMo, because it matches the way I work, splurging a dirty draft of something into the world as quickly as possible, which can then be revised and edited at leisure.

My writing style has evolved over the past couple of years away from panster towards becoming a confirmed plotter (plotting first saves me so much time and so many words). I finished plotting on my NaNo project a couple of days ago so I’m confident I’ll be able to keep up with the breakneck pace of NaNoWriMo and end the month victorious with a draft of something workable.

And while I don’t usually find it a problem to make time for writing because aside from family, it’s invariably my top priority (the layer of dust throughout my house confirms this!), I like that for November I’m so obviously not the only one letting everything slide in order to get the words down. I’m in good company for 30 days where we all have a laser-like focus on writing, writing, and more writing.

This year I won’t “win” because I’m aiming to write a 40k-word novella, so I won’t reach the magic 50,000 words, but 40,000 words in a month is an achievement I’ll be proud of, especially since I’m launching a book at the end of the month, too (I wouldn’t like my life to get dull!).

And now, I need to log on and note my first day: 2240 words in 90 minutes is pretty respectable. Now I just need to keep it up.

Anyone else writing like a demon this month? How are you doing?