#NaNoWriMo; The Pros and The Cons

I’m participating in my first ever NaNoWriMo this month, and I explained all my excitement before it started. Now, we’re one week in, and I’m finding it incredibly different to how I expected. 

It’s simultaneously easier and harder than I ever could have anticipated. The thing is, I’m on track at the moment. Actually, I’m writing this post in a little bit of spare time, and when I go back to writing tonight, I’ll probably get ahead. So many people are running terribly behind, but that’s actually not what I’m struggling with! At the same time, though, I’ve written 11,000 words, but I don’t feel like my story can get up to 50,000. We’ve already had the first part of the affair, something I thought would drag on a lot longer. We’ve introduced a group of friends, probably people who should have been introduced a lot earlier. We’re saying “we” all the time, and I think I’m referencing Lizzie and Vera, but I also just might be going insane? My writing seems incredibly fast, but incredibly slow, and I don’t really know how to deal with that. 

I’m doing so much better than I ever expected, even if I stopped right now. I planned to not make the full 50k, because I should be studying for exams right now. But I’ve really got caught up in the spirit of writing! All the encouragement and pain from everyone else makes me feel less alone than I usually do while writing, and it means I feel a lot more motivated to write. After this post, I’m going to join in some writing sprints on twitter, and those help me a lot! 

I’m more invested in this story than any other one I’ve written. I mean, I lose interest in things fast, and I move on to some other project because I get stuck on my first one. NaNo means that I can’t move on without losing, and the competitive part of me is so determined to win! Or at least, only lose because of lack of time, not lack of trying. Like I said before, I still think it’s going too fast, but hey, I can fix that later! 

Basically, I’m incredibly in love. So far, NaNo has been so much fun! It’s always going to fall at an inconvenient time, but I’d love to do it again. I mean, depending on how the rest of the month goes… And hopefully I can get involved in Camp, and editing, and all those littler things that happen during the year!

If you’re participating in NaNo, let me know how it’s going. Easier or harder than you were expecting? Are you on track with your word count?