This is where reality sets in.

It’s highly unlikely that I’m going to win NaNoWriMo this year. Not only have I fallen woefully behind, but I’ve had a little realization. My life is beyond busy. Work, ministry, family, Christmas, kids, work. I finally reached my breaking point this week, and realized that, although NaNo has been amazing and has given me the push to write over 20 000 words in a few weeks, I would rather stay sane and enjoy my family and the upcoming Christmas season.

That said, I am not abandoning the project, just lowering my personal bar. I will aim to have 40 000 words done in November, and finish the first draft of the novel (somewhere between 60 000 and 80 000) in December. To that end, I will continue these updates throughout December, because you all have been great incentive to fire off a few hundred words whenever I can. For those keeping track still, here are the stats for today:

Words written: 20 017

Word I should have written by the end of today to stay on track: 35 000 (28000, adjusted)

Average number of words written in my genre: 11911

Average number of words written in Calgary: 15588

Still well ahead of the curve. But then, I believe only about 20% of NaNo participants actually finish in November. So, we’ll see.

As far as the novel goes, I finished outlining the second half of the story, threw in a few subtle twists, and kept drilling on my word count. As far as plot points go (with a 7-point plot structure), we are just recovering from point 3 and heading towards the halfway mark of point 4. It’s been really neat, because every time I start to grow tired of putting fingers to keyboard, I start talking about the story to someone, and the fire to keep writing comes right back. Let’s hope that fire can keep me going through another 60 000 words!

Blessings