How are we almost halfway through November? I really don’t know where the time goes. I’m pretty behind in NaNoWriMo right now, like more than five thousand words behind. This is something I’m hopefully going to start to remedy at a coffee/pie shop this afternoon, but it’s also something I’m okay with. I’ve written over 60 pages so far this month. More importantly, it’s been the most lovely experience to turn off my inner editor and just write. Being in an MFA program is the most lovely way to get to spend my time and intellectual energy. At the same time, my writing faces constant critique and the voices (and differing opinions) of all my classmates and professors can be hard to silence. Writing a “shitty first draft” that I know no one is going to read, at least not in this form, feels really liberating. So even if I don’t “win” by hitting 50,000 words by the end of the month, I’m still glad I’m doing this because I’m enjoying writing in a way I haven’t been for a few months. And that’s pretty close to winning for me.
Now if only I could get some of that joy/confidence/piece of mind and transfer it into my thesis project…
If you are doing NaNoWriMo, how is it going for you? Are you enjoying it? Have you hit a wall? I’d love to chat about it in the comments!
Alison Doherty 
Write on!
You and I are at right about the same point! I just completed 16K last night, but I’m also pretty zen about it. It feels so good just to be writing again! I’m awful about establishing a regular habit, but I’m so proud of my progress so far. I only wrote 19K last year, so I’ll definitely make a huge improvement this month!
The zen feeling is good. My zen comes and goes, but I do think anything that gets me writing a lot more than I normally would is a good thing. Congrats on hitting 16K!
This is the first November in a few years where I haven’t had goals over content generation. I just turned my ms in to my editor and am enjoying the rest … though last night I did write JUST FOR FUN. And it was amazing. I loved every second.