We’re only into day five of April, and Happy Easter by the
way, but even after only five days, I’m feeling pretty good about my creative progress
so far.
I began Camp NaNo on Wednesday and after committing to
30,000 words for the month of April, I was able to get 1,500 tackled by the
time I finally had to tear myself away from the computer and get to bed. That’s after I’d already worked a full day
and spent a little time with the family before I hid away in my office for the
remainder of the evening.
The fact that I should be writing an average of 1,000 words
every day isn’t very difficult. It’s
just that I know I might not get to write every single day considering other
factors that will come up during the month so I was very pleased with myself
for doing so well the first day. Thursday
and Friday were off days…that didn’t take long did it? But my excuse is a late parent-teacher
conference on Thursday and time spent with my family on Friday evening.
I made it up yesterday, though. I took on the bare minimum of household
chores I knew I couldn’t put off and then I got to work on my book. After a couple of hours I had another 2,500
words added to my word count. When I
realized I had reached 4,000 words, I took a much-deserved break and spent a couple
hours outside in the sun, but afterwards I was still able to add about another
1,000 words to my word count before I finally called it a day. It felt great. Not just the number of words, although I’m
happy about that, but what felt great was that I was already beginning to feel
drawn into the story through my characters.
Due to the timing and the fact that I’m working in a completely
different genre, I thought I’d have to work harder at it this time to hear what
the characters had to say. But it happened
much sooner than I expected. I love it when that begins to take place because I
know the characters are going to help me move the story along and I look
forward to what happens when the characters begin to surprise me.
It’s a good thing I put in that little extra work yesterday
because today was spent with family for the Easter holiday and I haven’t had
any real time to write. Even so, I’m pleased
with my word count after the first five days of camp. I’m at just under 5,000 in five days, so at
this point, I’m right on track with my word count goal.
You’d think taking part in Camp NaNo might be enough for me
right now but I also decided to take part in another challenge during the month
of April. This challenge is easy in that
I can do what I want, when I want, but I’m trying to take in all that’s being
offered because it’s come to me at the perfect time as I try to sort out my
thoughts. The daily reflections and
photo prompts provide inspiration and help me focus on some much-needed
attention when it comes to my mind, body and soul. I’ve really enjoyed the challenge so far.
I’m also posting again only a week later than my last post,
so the beginning of April has proven to be a productive one. This is a step in the right direction as I
continue to get back into the grove of staying focused on not only what I want
to do, but what I need to do to plow
through the field of grief I’ve been stuck in for the past few months. Any movement forward is good, whether it
includes baby steps or great big leaps.
I’m happy either way. With the
progress I’ve made so far, I’m now even more excited to move into my second
week of challenges.
I’ll try to post an update with the progress I’ve made again
next weekend. Have a great week!
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