Oy. Have you taken a break yet?
So... yeah. If you've been writing to average, you've probably got about 20,000 words so far. Whether you've written this many or not, you're doing great! Keep up the good work!
But now that we're about halfway through the month, I have to mention something that's pretty damn important.
Burnout.
If you pressed yourself to get everything done in a week, more power to you. But if you're like most people, you've been pacing yourself throughout the last couple weeks and are in the "muddy middle" of your book. I know this is the most frustrating part of the book, because you start to get a lot of sagging. It's like when you pull a string between two points: it doesn't matter how tight you pull, there's always going to be some sag in the center. That's physics, my friend.
But with writing, we're battling another force of nature: biology. For some reason, humans need to take breaks! I don't know why. I'd love to just sit at my PC all day and hack at the keyboard. I love doing this. But when you do it for extended periods of time—especially if you also write for day job—you're going to start hating yourself for getting into NaNo.
I know. I've been there, too. At one point, I was doing technical marketing writing, freelancing as a SEO writer, in addition to trying to do NaNoWriMo. Guess what happened? Total mental breakdown. I couldn't handle it. Be careful not to take on too much.
At the end of the day, let's be honest with ourselves. What's more important? Your sanity (and wrists), or the story? Remember, you have as much time with your story as you need. NaNoWriMo is just a good excuse to do a lot.
So now you have permission. Or maybe an excuse. Take a break. Your story will still be sitting there when you come back.
Thanks for wreading!
Jeff
But now that we're about halfway through the month, I have to mention something that's pretty damn important.
Burnout.
If you pressed yourself to get everything done in a week, more power to you. But if you're like most people, you've been pacing yourself throughout the last couple weeks and are in the "muddy middle" of your book. I know this is the most frustrating part of the book, because you start to get a lot of sagging. It's like when you pull a string between two points: it doesn't matter how tight you pull, there's always going to be some sag in the center. That's physics, my friend.
But with writing, we're battling another force of nature: biology. For some reason, humans need to take breaks! I don't know why. I'd love to just sit at my PC all day and hack at the keyboard. I love doing this. But when you do it for extended periods of time—especially if you also write for day job—you're going to start hating yourself for getting into NaNo.
I know. I've been there, too. At one point, I was doing technical marketing writing, freelancing as a SEO writer, in addition to trying to do NaNoWriMo. Guess what happened? Total mental breakdown. I couldn't handle it. Be careful not to take on too much.
At the end of the day, let's be honest with ourselves. What's more important? Your sanity (and wrists), or the story? Remember, you have as much time with your story as you need. NaNoWriMo is just a good excuse to do a lot.
So now you have permission. Or maybe an excuse. Take a break. Your story will still be sitting there when you come back.
Thanks for wreading!
Jeff
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