November 2023 Update so Far

So it’s the 26th of April and I am currently about 4000 words below my target for Camp NaNoWriMo and I am STRESSING OUT. I have no reason for this because I haven't failed to complete a writing task yet. I write better when I am doing it "competitavely".

Not to mention that I haven’t made it easy for myself by snatching up every possible extra hour in work that I can get my hands on. Also I went on a date on Sunday which is so out of character for me in every way but that’s another story. I find myself being at my busiest on my writing months...

So here I am, about to have a breakdown because I’ve allowed myself to get into a situation where I need to spend every waking moment today writing and catching up on everything. But what is a little stress when it means I get to accomplish big goals such as this.

But I’m not me if I don’t believe I can do it so here I am. I want to spend a good portion of my time today on each of my projects. Even last night just after midnight I wrote nearly 600 words before I went to bed. The only thing I’m dreading is the handwritten portion which I’m going to leave to last. This usually takes me the longest but it's the thing I look most forward to because you can flick through the pages and see how much progress you have made.

This is why I love writing competitions like NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo though, it’s only stressful if you make it stressful, and I tend to make it VERY STRESSFUL. I like to use the months of November spending my words on a new project and I think for every April from here on out I’ll be using it to add words to my works in progress. If I don’t win one month I’ll be sad but I know that it’s not a big deal in the end.

I find myself enjoying this year's Camp NaNoWriMo because I didn’t realise how many projects I had still to finish so spending a dedicated month to getting these closer to completion feels like a good accomplishment. It means that I get to give my mind a little break from new projects and I just get to work towards other goals. I’ve made the most progress on my personal project and my short story (which is no longer a short story if I’m being honest) but I have managed to write a few articles and get them published to my vocal page.

The only reason I feel like I’m stressing out about this year's competition is because I’ve never found myself quite this far behind before. I’ve usually managed to keep up quite a good schedule with it. But I decided that I didn’t want to jeopardise my personal life by not agreeing to new things, such as the date I went on. I’m also saving up for a holiday and this time of year in my work there are always hundreds of extra hours going and I want ALL OF THEM! I haven’t been on holiday since 2019, before covid, so I need to be abroad this year or I will snap.

The fear I have is beating myself up about not winning and I feel like I beat myself up enough as it is so I don’t want another reason to do that. I want to feel like I’ve accomplished something big with Camp NaNoWriMo and even if I don’t write a single other word for the rest of this month I’ve still written 40,000 words. It’s just that the last 10k would seem, to me, like a failure if I didn’t get them too.

But regardless of winning or losing it’s still a huge amount of words that I didn’t have written before. It’s a huge amount of progress that I’ve made towards multiple projects and I should still be able to feel proud of it.

So I’m just going to write my little heart out and kick the last 10,000 words in the ass!

I love hearing about ways that people find motivation in themselves to hit word count goals and stuff so if you have any please leave a comment I’d love to read all of your suggestions.

UPDATE: I successfully managed to finish Camp NanoWriMo and I’m very proud of the work that I did to complete this goal!