{"id":3001,"date":"2012-11-20T15:22:57","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T22:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/?p=3001"},"modified":"2025-05-23T17:31:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T22:31:25","slug":"f-u-nanowrimo-friday-november-16th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/f-u-nanowrimo-friday-november-16th\/","title":{"rendered":"F U NaNoWriMo- Friday November 16th"},"content":{"rendered":"

I gathered up all my courage and optimism again this year and joined National Novel Writing Month. <\/a>The challenge is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. \u00a0You put the number of words you’ve written in a little box and hit “return” and then you see a graph of how much more you have to write to finish your novel!*<\/p>\n

This year was very exciting because I finally had something. \u00a0I found that mental nugget I’ve been waiting for since I decided to become a writer when I was in the third grade. \u00a0I even had a few pages already written, so I’d have a head start. \u00a0After entering the words I had already written and finding out on November 1st that I’d “only” have to write about 1600 words a day to reach my goal, I pretended not to feel discouraged. \u00a0“Slow and steady wins the race” I told myself.<\/p>\n

The thing is, slow and steady actually doesn’t win the race. \u00a0I can’t think of a single race that could be won by going slowly but steadily, unless it takes place at a corporate picnic and dictates that your feet are tied to a co-worker’s feet. \u00a0The steady part makes sense…but slow? \u00a0Why would going slowly end up making you faster? \u00a0It just doesn’t make any sense.<\/p>\n

I tried to put these thoughts out of my head, and just get to it. \u00a0Every spare moment I had I tried to bang out a few sentences. \u00a0My word count and my pride began to grow. \u00a0After a few days I checked my graph again. \u00a0Number of words I have to write every day to finish? \u00a0Only 2200. \u00a0My heart sank, but I pretended again not to be deterred. \u00a0More pretending; I didn’t even notice that impossible number, I’m not to beating myself up about my lack of focus and amount of time spent on the couch after Hazel goes to bed vs. writing my novel, I will achieve my goal! \u00a0These are complex pretending scenarios for an adult.<\/p>\n

That was 10 days ago. \u00a0I haven’t written another word. \u00a0I’ve tinkered. \u00a0I’ve proof read and moved sentences and changed fonts. \u00a0I’ve given my computer screen the finger. \u00a0And I think it’s time to admit that I am not competitive, and cannot be motivated by racing. \u00a0In fact, competing tends to make me shut down and just give up. \u00a0If I were in the Olympics for figure skating, I’d probably forget my skate laces back at the room just so I wouldn’t have to try and then lose. If I were a runner, I’d probably eat a bagel and cream cheese and a sausage biscuit from McDonalds and a large orange juice and barf mid-way through the race. \u00a0It’s as if my brain is working against me. \u00a0It’s misfiring the synapses to my fingers so that I don’t press the keys.<\/p>\n

3853 words per day to finish.<\/p>\n

The stupidity of this number has finally cured my neurotic paralysis. \u00a0 Before NaNoWriMo I was so proud of getting down a whole paragraph in a day. \u00a0My capacity to write 3853 words every day is equal to my capacity to fly. I will go back to my routine of writing when I want to. \u00a0That’s what works for me: doing what I want to do, and avoiding doing things that are annoying. \u00a0I’m not proud of this, I’m just telling you the truth.<\/p>\n

I’m back to writing a little bit everyday. \u00a0I aim for a sentence and am so proud when I get out a paragraph. \u00a0I respect you NaNoWriMo, but I just don’t think it’s going to work out between us. \u00a0I would say we could stay friends, but we both know I’ve already started secretly hating you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*The point is to just write write write, and edit later.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7624<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I gathered up all my courage and optimism again this year and joined National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. \u00a0You put the number of words you’ve written in a little box and hit “return” and then you see a graph of how much more you … Continue reading “F U NaNoWriMo- Friday November 16th”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3001"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3004,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3001\/revisions\/3004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}