Today’s post is a day early because I’ve been doing a lot of hard thinking, and I couldn’t wait to share my thoughts. On Friday I reached 95, 000 words, but instead of doing what I’ve done in previous years and writing a truly insane amount–like 300, 000 words–I’ve decided to slow down and put some energy back into other projects. I’ve sorely neglected this blog over the last week, and I’m also looking for more paid work because money is particularly tight at the moment.
Slowing down is completely acceptable–it’s giving up entirely that isn’t. I will be writing until the end of November, and you should too, but if you can only write a thousand words or a couple thousand words each day when you were doing five thousand words before, that’s fine. The point of Nanowrimo is to write more than you would otherwise, and to finish a novel. Don’t beat yourself up for having to slow down, especially if you have wrist problems like I do.
This is also only week three, and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get a burst of energy when week four starts and be able to speed up again. I’m pretty sure I’ll spend most of next weekend writing my novel–I always go through my slump in the middle of the month, but my first and last week are always strong–but this week, my focus will be drafting blog posts for the rest of the year and looking for paid work. I’m also going to be playing around a bit with the design of this blog and making it more user friendly.
Nanowrimo may be important to me, and writing this novel may be important to you, but that doesn’t mean it should completely take over our lives. There are other important things in this world, and you have to keep a balance. Make a point of trying to write something every day, but if you can only pump out a few hundred words, don’t beat yourself up over it. Everyone has times when writing becomes a challenge or other important things come up, and nobody should judge you for taking a much needed break–least of all yourself.