With a week and a half still to go of the July 2013 Camp NaNoWriMo Day 22 arrives with a huge amount of contentment. Why, you might ask? Because last Thursday, I hit my 15,000-word target.
I’m actually really surprised that I managed it, because this month hasn’t exactly been a quiet month business-wise or socially, which is why I kept the word count low. It feels strange to say: “yeah, I’ve completed Camp NaNoWriMo“, because typically at this stage I am uber stressed out, a long way away from my target word count for the day, let alone the whole month. So, it is nice to have been quite relaxed about the whole thing, without the unneeded stress levels.
It’s also helped that I had a scene-by-scene plan for this month, which I’ve consulted at the end of virtually every scene to make sure that I keep in order. Of course, I’ve added stuff and gone off the plan a little, but I’ve always found myself going back to it.
As you can see I have whooped my target, and the big question now is:
Do I carry on?
There’s a part of me that wants to say “shove it, I’ve done my bit” and spend the rest of the month chilling out. But, I know that I’m not going to do that.
The fact is that I didn’t even notice that I’d past my word count by, and as you can tell from where I did eventually stop last week: I carried on a long way past that word count.
The point is, that I am very much in the right frame of mind to focus on this story. I’m fairly happy with where my story is going, and whilst I’m confident about it, I think it is only right to carry on, instead of allow myself to fall into the abyss of not writing for myself.
Another point is, I’m really enjoying having the opportunity to dedicate time to writing for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing for clients, because I never know what I’m going to be working on and there is something exciting about that. But, it’s nice – every once in a while – to sit down and work on something that is mine. I don’t do it enough!
