NaNoWriMoer v Cat: The Showdown

“You have no power over me.” – Labyrinth, 1986

 

Monday, 17 November

Still a way to go
to the 50,000-word mark.

9am: Child at school, with play date afterwards. I have until 5.30pm to push up my NaNoWriMo total. Today is the day. A jug of iced tea is in the fridge, I have no commitments, no excuses.
Limit time to check email, social media, and undertake research before writing to one hour. Set timer on phone accordingly.

New Year is organised

Until now my New Year's resolution has been don't make New Year's resolutions.

My study and writing area before the clean-up.
Note cat soaking up sun under the desk.

Now I'm feeling the need to do so, and the resolution is... be more organised.

I generally consider myself a very organised person. As a journalist and subeditor deadlines were not, as some say, guidelines, and I knew what needed to be done, who was doing it and when it needed to be done by, and I could reorganise quickly if a story fell through.

One step forwards...

..two steps backwards

 

I'm way behind on my NaNoWriMo word count target. The official website mentions the week two doldrums, and I'm definitely a victim. And I don't even want to think about PiBoIdMo – I've had some picture book ideas, but the motivation to write them down on paper is at about 'meh' level.

The little darlings are so loving and peaceful
when they're not trying to subvert the creative process.

 

Part of the reason my motivation has faltered is that my NaNoWriMo word count went down instead of up. How? I decided to split one chapter into two, copied and pasted, then forgot to delete the duplicate text. So what seemed to be a particularly productive writing session was followed the next day by one in which I literally – and literaturely – went backwards.