Only 22 days until NaNoWriMo!!!

50,000 divided by 30 = 1666.667.  That means that if I’m going to complete NaNoWriMo this year, I will have to complete an average of 1667 words per day for the entire month of November in order to reach the goal of 50,000 words in a month.  I tried to do it last year, and failed miserably.  Day one started out with a bang and I had managed to get 1666 word down on the computer.  Nothing happened on day two, day three I deleted it all, day four I had my NaNoWriMo 2012 high word count of 2003 words, I had broken out of the rut and at that point realized that I wasn’t in love with my story so I did a quick shuffle and changed gears.  On day five I scrapped it all, changed my story and dug in getting all the way up to 856 words.  Three days later I added the last I had in me making it to my 2012 total of 1647 words.

No, I didn’t remember all these details and numbers, I had to go back to last year’s NaNoWriMo stats to get the numbers with which I could tell when I scrapped my first idea.  At least I got that much out of last year’s challenge, right?  So, if I failed so miserably last year, what makes me think I can do it this year you ask?  Ha ha, I have an answer for that one.

Last year in the month of November, I was kind of busy.  I was pitching my Sr. Thesis idea so I could get permission to do a Sr. Project/Thesis instead of the lame ole Sr. Seminar.  I had to present a proposal and find a project leader.  I had three English classes and two Psychology classes, all of which were pretty labor intensive.  I had counted it up that I had 11 papers to do that semester, 11, and that was in addition to the tests and quizzes and such.  Yep, I was pretty busy.

I also had two part time jobs, well actually three and was part of a research project.  I shouldn’t forget to add the girls, one of which was a senior in high school.  So, I guess I was pretty busy, not to mention my muse was heavily tasked at the time.  I may not have been able to get anywhere with NaNoWriMo, but I did manage to finish the semester with a 4.0 and my sanity, so I guess that must have been my priority then, I don’t really remember for sure.  That period of time is just a bit foggy. 

So this year, I only have one job, Georgia is grown up and moved out so I only have one kid.  My one job has a huge event on November 2^nd, after which a strange normalcy is going to hit as the stress of that big event is gone.  My muse has rested up over the last four months and has been bugging me for the last few weeks looking for something to do, and I’ve got ideas floating around in my head and important lessons learned over the last few years on how to coax my muse into action when it gets stubborn.  The stage is being set for me to succeed this year in the NaNoWriMo.

Like any challenge, I’m going to need to get into training and get myself in condition for the task that lies ahead.  I’m going to have to write, and write often (or actually type if you willJ).  I’m starting my conditioning schedule today with my countdown of only 22 days left until NaNoWriMo.  So here I go, day one of my training schedule and I’m presenting you with 667 words.  Only 1000 words short of making the daily goal.  Not a bad start for a warm-up I say.  Expect to hear a lot until November rolls around, when that happens, well, we know where my muse will be.