Or, Oops, I did it again…
Well, it’s November, which means it’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, I don’t mean the holiday season. What are holidays in 2020, anyway? I mean National Novel Writing Month.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, which is pretty much everyone who’s not a novelist, NaNoWriMo, as those of us “in the know” call it, is a challenge to write a new 50,000 word novel in November. I sense some of you doing the math to figure out how many words that is per day, so I’ll go ahead and give it to you – 1667ish on average. For me many days it’s more. Some days it’s less.
When I told the total monthly number to my mom last year, her immediate response was, “That’s an easy month for you!” She knows me well. But I still do it because many years, like this one, I’ve burned out on writing by autumn. This is a way to get me back in gear and allow me to have a book to release early the following year.
How does that work? In order for me to get that many words per day and have a life, I need to get out of my own way and just sit down and write. This is my sixth NaNoWriMo, so I have an idea of what I need to do. Yes, the website says I’m in my third, but my first three were 2006-2008 under my Earthlink email address, which I no longer have, and I don’t remember the password. So… Yeah. Yay, technology. I didn’t finish in 2008, anyway. If you’re interested in reading the two books I wrote in 2006 and 2007, they were Tangled Dreams and Web of Truth, which got pretty much rewritten and ended up being a finalist in the 2019 Daphne du Maurier Awards, respectively.
So how am I getting in my own way this year? I decided going into November that not only would I write a novel, or finish one since I’ve been dragging my feet on The Shadowed Path, but I would do the Obe Fitness 28-day Harder AF Challenge AND take advantage of the time change to reset my circadian rhythm and finally succeed in becoming a morning person.
If you’ve read Better Sleep for the Overachiever, you know that trying to work against one’s own internal clock is really hard. I thought I had it figured out, though. With the clocks having been turned back, I’d be motivated to get up early, get at least half my words in, exercise, and force myself into a cheerful-at-6:15 a.m. persona by the end of the month.
You can probably guess how that went. My body rebelled, and on November 5, I woke with the worst migraine I have ever had. It was so bad I called out of work, which hardly ever happens. I dusted myself off, tried the next week, and crashed and burned again on Thursday, although not with a migraine, thank goodness. My body said, “no more please,” and I was exhausted all day.
In the interest of full disclosure, the workouts are hard af, and I’m definitely not doing them every day. I did the Day 10 ones yesterday, so you can see how my progress is going. I’ll be done with the workout challenge at the end of December. At least my words are going well, and I’m on track there.
As for my internal clock… I gave up yesterday and reset my alarm to be more consistent with my natural schedule.
One would think that I’d be better about piling on the commitments, but what can I say? I’m an overachiever and an achievement junkie. At least it looks like I’ll hit one out of three.
How about you? Do you tend to overcommit and overly challenge yourself? Please drop a comment and let me know.
Btw, if you’ve read Better Sleep for the Overachiever, would you mind leaving it a review on one or more of the book vendor sites? I’d really appreciate it.
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