NaNo Week #2 - More Words, More Sleep, + Less Motivation.

Saturday, November 14, 2015


NaNoWriMo so far has looked like this:

week one: WORDS! SUCCESS! I LOVE NANOWRIMO! I AM SO HAPPY I SIGNED UP!

week two: Words. Exhausted success. Remind my why I signed up for this, thought it'd be "fun," and go for double the word goal? *headdesk*

(Missed week one of my NaNoWriMo blogging series? Read it here!)

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day seven // 5,297
insane writing marathon day goal achieved.

THE FIRST WRITING SATURDAY OF NOVEMBER! *throws confetti*

Saturdays are the days when I wake up late, and then proceed to write crazy amounts of words. This Saturday's goal? 5,000. (And I did it. Yess.)

I'm still confused about my plot and I think my plot's scared of me for some reason, but it's working. Slowly. I kinda know what I'm doing. Kinda.

Honestly I don't think any of us NaNoers know what we're doing to be honest.
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day eight // 3,970
I ate pizza, went to bed early, and solved a murder mystery.

I credit pizza to all my success for today because that's what I ate for lunch.

But actually I really didn't want to write today. At. All. It was one of those days that I got really rather confused at why I wanted to do NaNoWriMo in the first place because it's SO HARD.

I sat and whined at the computer and glared at my document. Then a friend messaged me, and we proceeded to solve a murder mystery. This got me almost 4,000 words and I'm endlessly thankful.

Also, I went to bed before midnight the first time in nine days. Look at me being all responsible.
(AND I HIT 30K!)

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day nine //  2,176
all my motivation got stolen by a writing beast. *sniff*

I got attacked today. It was a horrid beast, covered with slime and motivation-sucking tentacles. I sat there, hunched at my computer, ready to write, when--

--IT STRUCK! Out of nowhere the beast latched itself onto my head. Everything around me blurred. My eyes closed. 

When I opened them, the beast was gone... and so was my motivation. So this was me the whole day: 

 :
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day ten // 4,102
In which I stay up late and spill pizza everywhere. *sigh*

Today was a pretty awesome writing day. I wrote lots of words, and I also feel pretty good about the words I wrote. 

I also reached a new record on the number of words typed in ten minutes. 619 words in ten minutes. I'm not quite sure how it happened and I think most of them are filled with nonsense, but, hey! It works. xD

And since I love pizza, I had this fantastic idea one night to randomly bake a frozen pizza at ten. (thank you, dad, for agreeing to this. :P) So I baked it. I carried it into the living room so we could all feast together.

Then the cutting board tipped. 

And all the pizza landed face first on the carpet. The new carpet we had bought two months ago. *headdesk* (Thankfully it came out well. And the pizza still tasted good.) 
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day eleven // 4,160
wow, two good days in a row can this really be possible + I HIT 40k!

Another successful day! *dances around* (I'm just waiting to hit my slump, now. It's going to come any day. :P *braces self*) 

Nothing special happened today. besides the fact that I went to bed before midnight for the second time this month AND I HIT 40k! Just a normal writer's routine:

write twenty words.
check Twitter.
and Facebook. 
update NaNoWriMo word count. 
ask for a Word War.
answer some emails. 
see if my word count has grown since the last time I updated. 
nope.
write some more. 
repeat until I somehow get to an insane amount of words.
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 day twelve // 1,710
I FINALLY HIT A SLUMP OF SORT AND ASKDJF;ALSD WORDSS.


Gah. 
Words.
Help.
Why.
Did.
I. 
Sign.
Up.
For.
This.
Insanity. 
*collapses*
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day thirteen // 672
more writing slumps + I'm scared of tomorrow.


"Why is Katie scared of tomorrow?" you may ask. 
"Why?" I say. "Because this is why." *points below*

AIMEE AND I ARE TRYING TO WRITE 10,000 WORDS TOMORROW SO BASICALLY WE'RE INSANE AND I THINK I'M GOING TO DIE.

I'm doing this with Aimee from To the Barricade, and I'm kinda sorta a lot freaking out. I've had two not so good days in a row, and I've never written 10,000 new words in a day. I've done rewrites and some edits, but ON A CLEAN DRAFT? Hahaha, no. I'm nervous. Really nervous. And excited. But mostly nervous. xD 

So if I don't answer comments until Sunday, that is why. You can find me hunched over my computer, fingers flying and typing nonsense.

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days I went to bed before midnight: 2/7 (HEY LOOK BETTER THAN LAST WEEK.)

highest word count in a day: 4,160. 

lowest word count in a day: 672.

snippet: (I'm really bad at remembering to save snippets for blog posts so I just had to through together a passage quickly. Also I really don't like sharing snippets because I'm an insecure writer.)


obstacle of the week: Not wanting to write. At all. Especially Thursday and Friday. Just... CAN I IGNORE THE WORDS? My word count will somehow increase anyways, right? Right?!

best part of the week: Hitting 40k! Because that's a lot of words to write in eleven days and I'm proud of it.

NaNoWriMo blog posts: Aimee talked about painful WEEK ONE NaNoWriMo realities. They're all true. *hugs post*


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NaNo is insanely hard and difficult and creativity-draining, but I'm still kinda glad that I signed up. By the end of the month I'll have a novel (a messy one but editing comes later). A whole novel! So that's a pretty good reward. 

If you're behind, don't stress. Well maybe stress if you're trying to catch up. But, no. Life is crazy. (I'm very blessed to be homeschooled and fast and writing and just generally having lots of time.) Try to write something each day, even if it's a couple paragraphs. You got this. *hugs and pizza* *because pizza is always appropriate for every situation* 
YAY FOR WRITING AND NANOWRIMO. 

- Katie Grace
| my NaNo profile |


How's NaNo going? How's your story going? I want to hear about everything! (Really, I do.)

55 comments :

  1. Writing slumps. I feel you. :P I have wanted to write more than I did most of this week . . . but I was low on ideas, and my wordcount crawl did not give me enough motivation to smack Writer's Block into submission. Or, not as much as I would've liked. However! I'm temporarily past the annoying arguing for a little bit! So that's good!

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    1. Word crawls CAN be motivating, but sometimes I look ahead at the story part and skip the writing which kinda defeats the purpose. *sigh* :P
      Huzzah! Hopefully this week will go better. Week two seems to the be the writing slump kind of week for everyone. :P

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  2. Writing slumps, grr. You're amazing Katie, 5k in a day? I can barely hit my daily of 3k a day xD Keep it up, you're doing great! I found a huge tip for me, and that is to cover up the little word count tracker on word with a piece of paper or something and I usually can write 1k at a time without taking a little peek :P

    I love your NaNo posts, they always really motivate me!

    ~Noor

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    1. Duude, but you have a goal of 3k? Impressive. *nods*
      Ooooh, that is a GREAT idea, actually. o.O Do you set a time limit for how long you cover it for? I'd have to give myself a reward of chocolate or something because otherwise I'd totally peek. xD

      Aww, I'm glad! They're fun to track and write. :D

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  3. I WAS PLANNING ON DOING A 10K DAY AS WELL TODAY. WE SHALL ALL SURVIVE. *hands you motivation*

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    1. OH MY GOODNESS DID YOU MAKE IT!?!
      *whisper* I surviveddd.

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    2. YES I MADE IT AND IT WAS EXHAUSTING.

      Now you have every right to slack off for a day or two xD

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    3. YAYY YOU ARE AMAZING AND WE CAN BE EXHAUSTED TOGETHER, NOW.

      Yes, I totally spent all of Sunday watching The Hunger Games and LOST. But now I must write again. *sigh*
      You slacked off too, hopefully? xD

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  4. Writing slumps are terrible :(. I feel for ya.
    Oh, the things you can do if you eat Pizza! It is a wonder worker. *nods* *hands you more pizza*
    Ooo, I despise the writing beast! If only I could find a sword with which I could fight him ... alas, I don't have a spare sword laying around. Pity.
    YOU HIT 40K!!! HOORAY FOR YOU!!! GO, KATIE!!! *throws glitter*
    What's your word count goal?

    ~Savannah Perran

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    1. Exactly! Pizza is some kind of magical motivation food that will help me do anythinggg. I love it. xD *takes all the pizza you offered*

      THANK YOU! :D
      My goal is to finish my whole book in one month. Sooo, that means it'll end up being somewhere between 90-100k. Hopefully it doesn't end up being any longer because otherwise I'm doomed. xD

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    2. 90-100K?! I would never be able to do that in a month :D. You rock just for making it your goal!!!
      Does your NaNoWriMo novel have a title?

      ~Savannah Perran

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    3. I've never actually done it in a month, so we'll see if it actually happens. Hopefully! :D
      It does! The Sand Dragon's Song. I REALLY like it, and it fits lovely with the first book's title: Song of the Desert. So I'm happy. :P

      What's the title of your current novel?

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    4. Now I really, REALLY have to get my hands on your book :). Even the title is intriguing!
      Well, my current novel is my entry for the Five Magic Spindles contest (which actually isn't the one I told you about in an earlier comment, now I'm writing a different one that I like much better), and I'm calling it 'Scars' for now, though it could end up being called 'Worth All Treasures'. Honestly, I'm not sure :D. I always have the hardest time picking titles!

      ~Savannah Perran

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    5. *happiness* Aww, thanks. <3

      Aah. So will you just be entering one? Or two?
      I like the title Scars... I think I like it better than the other one because it creates a sense of intrigue. Maybe there are some words/a phrase you could add to it?

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    6. Ooo, that's a really good idea ... I'll have to think on that one :D. Thanks!

      ~Savannah Perran

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    7. Oops, forgot to answer your question :D. I'll probably just be entering one, since that's really all I have the time to finish :). Have you ever participated in one of Anne Elisabeth's contests before? I wasn't even aware of them when Five Glass Slippers and Five Enchanted Roses was going on, so Five Magic Spindles will be the first one I enter.

      ~Savannah Perran

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    8. Yeah. The deadline is coming up soon... And then there's all the editing besides writing the first draft. :P

      Nope. *shakes head* I don't think I ever will, either. It's a nice challenge, but not for me. It'd be hard to keep a story to 20,000 words... I tend to make my stories a lot lengthier. :P
      Yeah. I knew about the Beauty and the Beast one, but I didn't have an idea. And for some reason Sleeping Beauty has never been my favorite fairy tale. So I'm excited to see how all the writers make it more interesting!

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  5. Great job! 40k is awesome. Thanks for the encouraging post :)

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  6. This post is a very accurate description of me right now! Thanks for the good laugh and boot in creativity to finish my novel!

    Blessings -

    ~ Aspen

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    1. Haha, you're very welcome! :D
      How many words are you at currently?

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  7. I am on track so far, but we shall see. I will pray that you do well, along with all of my other writing buddies.
    Rayray

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    1. Thank you, Rachael. It's been fun warring with you throughout the month. You're doing amazing!

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    2. Thank you! That is super encouraging.

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  8. Heh... Writing slumps... Nah, never had those... Like... Last week...

    Thankfully, though, this week has gone MUCH better, writing-wise. Caiti helped me figure out something in my story which I was having problems with, and I managed to write my personal wordcount goal... For two days.
    Well, better than nothing.
    I'm still below par, but I'm a LOT less discouraged than I was last week. Maybe I'll make it. xP

    10,000 words... 0.0 You are quite insane, my friend.

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    1. Oh, GOOD. I'm glad Caiti was helpful. :P
      You will make it. Confidence, woman! Just keep writing, writing, warring, sprinting... You'll make it. *nods*

      Yeah. 0.0 I somehow survived, though! xD

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  9. PIZZZZZA!!!! It is appropriate for every situation and apparently your carpet enjoyed partaking too? (Nasty carpet, wanting all the goodness. *sniffs*) I, funnily enough, am about to have pizza for lunch. IT'S BEEN LIKE A YEAR SINCE I HAD HONEST TO GOODNESS PIZZA. *flails and collapses*
    Oh but what were we talking about? AH YES. NANO! NANO NO NA!! Or just no. XD I had a lot of fun this year (although more fun last year? I wrote like a ghost/comedy last year, but this year was like dragons/angst) and I didn't hit any slumps thank goodness. But the struggle is real. o.O
    *whispers* And I saw your comment on my blog that you'd hit 50K SO CONGRAAAATS!! MORE PIZZA!! AND CAKE NOW!! HUZZAH!!!

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    1. YESSS PIZZA!!! Ugh, bothersome carpet, wanting all my pizza. *stares angrily*
      WAIT YEARS?! O.O PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE JOKING OR SOMETHING.

      xD Well, dude, you finished NaNo in four stinkin' days, so I can imagine NaNo is just a huge "no," now. xD I'm so impressed (and slightly jealous, but we won't talk about that) of your crazy writing skills.

      THANK YOU! YES! PIZZA! And brownies instead of cake. Or cookies. *nods*

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  10. Replies
    1. Thank you, Eliza!
      How's writing going for you?

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    2. It's not lol... My big plan for the month was to get extra schoolwork done and post on my private blog weekly. The blogging is going well. Schoolwork kinda got dumped this past week. I went to the Winter Jam concert last week and so that day I hung out with my cousin and the next day I was exhausted and couldn't think about anything other than the amazing concert sooo, ya. This week isn't looking to good for schoolwork either. It's the week of my choir concert and I just got a bread order for 39 loaves which is amazing but it is going to take up so much of my time. But, hey! I did write 5 pages in my journal and write one paragraph of a Christmas story if that counts for anything :)
      Oh, by the way, thanks so much for telling me about picmonkey! I absolutely love creating graphics for blog posts now :D Not that any of my friends and family really care but I think my blog posts look much more professional with graphics. In a way I'm practicing for when I have an author blog someday hopefully :)

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    3. Ohhh, you make bread for people? That is super cool. o.O And 39 loaves... Wow. Hopefully you can cook multiple at once? xD
      Concerts are soooo fun. *nods* I'm glad you had a good time. :D

      Oh, you are so welcome! PicMonkey is fabulous when it comes to designing things.
      OOOH YOU SHOULD TOTALLY HAVE AN AUTHOR BLOG SOMEDAY! I'd totally follow it and shout you out. *wink*

      Good luck with the school and blogging and bread making! :)

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    4. Thanks Katie! I will most definitely have an author blog... just as soon as I publish one of my books :)

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    5. *grin* Do you hope to traditionally publish or self-publish?

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    6. Self publish. I think. What about you?

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    7. Ooo, yes, you'll definitely need to start an author blog once you self-publish, Eliza! I would love to read one of your books someday! ~Savannah Perran

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    8. Ooh, awesome!
      I hope to go for traditional publishing. :)

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    9. Thanks Savannah :) I hope you can read one someday!

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  11. YOUR WORD COUNT IS AWESOME. And 100k in a month is a frightening goal.
    I'm still hanging out at 15k, but it's my first time attempting this crazy thing so I'm not being too hard on myself. I'm still hoping to catch up like a crazy person and get to 50k, but we'll see how that goes. xD Currently I'm at the point in my story where I'm starting to wonder if I actually know what I'm doing with it (of course I don't) and what in the world to do next. But since the goal is to write WORDS and not necessarily GOOD WORDS, I've been able to keep a fairly steady pace. xD

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    1. THANK YOU, EMILY!
      Ahah, YOU CAN DO IT! Am I friends with you on the NaNo site? If we are, you can send me a NaNoMail and we can set up a Word War together! (And if we aren't then you can add me and THEN we can Word War. :P)

      Yes. Words. Right. Just plain old words. Editing is going to be soooo hard with this novel I'm terrified. :P

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    2. I think I added you at some point. My username is StoryOfSilver98. http://nanowrimo.org/participants/storyofsilver98 :D

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    3. Weird -- I hadn't added you as a buddy. It has been fixed, though!

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  12. Good luck!!!!! I haven't joined NaNoWriMo yet (November is the worst month for me in school) but I'm hoping to try it out at least once before I graduate high school!

    Excited to see how you're doing in the next couple of days! :)

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    1. Ugh, it never makes much sense that NaNoWriMo takes place in November. It's seriously one of the WORST months. (Though, maybe December would be worse? But then at least there's Christmas break.. I can't decide. :P)

      Thank you! Another update will come soon. :)

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    2. Hmmm... maybe December would be worse even with Christmas break? That's just my opinion. We have final exams in the middle of December, and I just realized I'll be having to take an exam AND study for more exams on my birthday. Talk about frustrating!

      Definitely excited about the update :)

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    3. Ahh, yikes. Very frustrating. AND if people are busy with Christmas parties and family, writing would probably get set aside for quite a bit of the month. :P

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  13. NaNo is such a great project for people who are goal driven. I can't believe that you're doing a double goal! That's crazy (and insanely impressive!). Before I was in university, I thought it was great, but now it's the busiest month for me, so it's a no-go.

    Good luck and keep pushing through! Pizza will help you get there, haha.

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    1. Ah, school. It always has to get in the way, doesn't it? *sniff* *throws school out the window* *then collects it because unfortunately school is a must*

      Yesss, pizza will always help. xD

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  14. 4K for most days is a lot! You should be proud of that! My max in a day this go around has been 3.5K! You're going to finish ridiculously early regardless (If you haven't already). XD And that's a big accomplishment! Hooray for progress! At the time of writing his comment I'm at 46K! I'm hoping to finish before my trip on Thursday, but we'll see if the book goes longer than 50K lol. (It's already at 50K technically since I wrote some before NaNo). I'm glad this has been a productive month for you too!

    storitorigrace.blogspot.com

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    1. That's still an awesome word count for you, though! You've been going nice and steady this whole time.
      Yup. I've finished. xD ALMOST to 60k, now. Should make it by tomorrow (though my secret goal was by tonight, but that's not going to happen, haha.).

      Eep, you're doing amazing! Did you end up finishing your book in time? (Well, assuming that you see this comment by tomorrow.)

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    2. That's awesome!

      I did! And I'm still going. I think I'm going to be at almost 60K. ^ ^

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    3. YAY! That's awesome. :D
      And I actually did make it to 60k, haha. Stayed up until midnight which I regretted the next day. :P

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  15. You're awesome for writing this much!! My highest word count to ever write in one day was around 3,000, but that was on a REALLY good day because I'd been planning the scene in my head forever. I'm not doing Nano, so most days I get about 600. XD

    Ugh, first drafts are the worst. I got halfway through my first draft, but I actually started over in October because there were way too many plot holes to where I didn't feel like I could continue and enjoy writing it, so now I'm re-writing the first half of my book. It's a second draft not really, so maybe it's like draft one and a half? XD I don't really know, but so far it's been SO much better than the first time I wrote it and I'm finding it a lot easier. I'm thinking about increasing my word count, but we'll see. I tend to write slower and put more thought into every scene to cut back on editing some.

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    1. 3,000 is a lot. Honestly, any word count is a lot. Writing is so exhausting, so writing more than a couple hundred words can suck all your energy away. :P
      600 is still good, though! If you do 600 every day in November, that'll be 18,000 words completed. :)

      Ewww first drafts. *headdesks repeatedly*
      Draft and a half. Ahah. Love it. xD My first drafts are always SUCH a mess, and with how fast I'm writing this one, it's an even bigger mess than other first drafts I have written. So I'm just trying not to despair because the amount of editing that I will have to do is just... *dies* :P

      Yeah. I almost can't seem to *make* myself write slower?? I want to, because editing would be a lot easier, but my fingers just want to write the story and get it over with and I can't really stop them. *sigh* Both ways of writing has its upsides and downsides. *shrugs*

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  16. Yes, I think it's a fact that people participating in NaNoWriMo have no clue what they're doing--at least, I will agree to that since I don't want to be alone in my cluelessness. I think most of us just feel like toddlers flinging paint at a piece of paper and hoping for a masterpiece.

    You're progress, even though you were in a slump for part of the time, is seriously impressive. I mean, a lot of people struggle to write 50K in a month or even half that, and I really don't run into a high percentage of people who've gone above and beyond the 50K. *gives you high five* And yeah, I went through bad slumps this November (I was travelling and I had a 100 word day and I could have done more but I just didn't feel like it), so I feel your pain. NaNoWriMo is definitely not for the faint of heart.

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