What 4 Days of NaNo Has Taught Me

It's day 4 of NaNoWriMo2016, and I thought I'd pop in for a quick update.

Yes, I'm letting the blogs sit more or less idle this month, as I am focusing on my book for this 30 day period of time, though I have gotten a few posts set up to go out automatically this month.

If you hadn't noticed yet, there are a couple of little tickers over on the right hand side of the screen. One shows you which days I made my goal of 1,667 words for that day (green is achieved, yellow means I wrote and updated my word count, but didn't get all 1700 or so words for that day). The other is simply a little bar that fills up as I complete my 50k goal.

I've managed to write every day this month, and as of last night, I was nearing the 10,000 word mark. I'm almost 1/5 of the way through the challenge, and I'm having so much fun doing this.

I have learned a few things already, though.

NaNo2016 is teaching me lessons.

We've talked before that I am a pantser, meaning that I write by the seat of my pants. I have an outline and a time line, as well as a few sketched scenes, but mostly, I sit down to write whatever comes next in the story, though I do have one scene that I had far too much fun with, thanks to the support of my NaNo group on Discord chat (like Skype for gamers).

That brings me to the next thing I've learned.

I can really make myself stretch to incorporate the unexpected. Yesterday, fueled by sugar and far too much caffeine, I pounded out 2,800 words, and had some weird little tidbits that showed up in my drafting, thanks to oddball writing prompts and mass-silliness on the part of our group. You see, what happens to writers during NaNo, is that our usual brand of crazy gets cranked up a few notches, and things like "What would happen if the world were taken over by Emoji's?" Word sprints (a short challenge where you set a timer and write as much as you can in that time) with off the wall writing prompts like, "Introduce a llama in your next chapter," have your main character suddenly sitting, stuck in traffic, while a llama is on the loose in the city.

We also entertain ourselves with distractions like, "What would the consequences be of having 4 lungs instead of 2?" The combined knowledge and creativity makes for some strange conversations.

To be a writer, one must write.

I mentioned that yesterday's writing was brought to you by too much caffeine and sugar, yes? I've also learned that I'm not 20 anymore, and that abusing my body with such things is a recipe for feeling like crap the next day. So, what am I doing differently today? Not much, other than planning to have salad for lunch and a little less caffeine.

I've also learned that the crazy is contagious. Two nights before NaNo began, I had friends approach me about wanting to do their own NaNo books this year. I totally support that! Of course, it also meant that when my daughter came home from her uncle's on Tuesday, and I told her, she rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, no... not more writers! Mom, what have you started?"

Technically, I haven't started anything. NaNo has been going on since 1999. I have only talked up the fact that I am doing it this year. And I'll support everyone that participates! Speaking of which, it's not too late to get started (yes, you will have to work hard to catch up and make your goal, but you've only lost 3 days. Get writing!).