Last night I finished the first of my two novels for this November. It flowed easily, as many of the projects I care the least about do.
But that is a good deal of the point NaNoWriMo teaches us, to let go and realize that somehow we find the end anyway, and the less we hold on to what we thought we we doing, the better the result.
It is hard to believe how little I have blogged this month. I miss it. I honestly wish I had more going on in my head, but between my transformative trip to San Francisco for A Night of Writing Dangerously – I promise, I'll tell you all about it – and writing two novels this month, I am bone dry for other things to say, at least things you haven't heard me say before.
I tell myself I am setting a good example; that I am writing and not letting anything else stop me despite how much I want to blog instead of meet my word quota.
Writing two novels is both easier and harder than I expected it to be. It has been nice to switch between my two stories and to have that freedom of thought, not being locked in on one single train of plot line and characters.
But the actual switching between is getting to be a bit of a bitch, frankly. And so is the wear and tear on my body that I have not anticipated. Like my hands aching constantly and the relative inability to use my pointer fingers for anything but tapping the keys of my bluetooth keyboard (I prefer the touch screen keyboard, but my hands need the change).
Which is actually another reason for my lack of blog, though I always hate to admit when physical ailments prevent me from living up to my obligations.
Writing this much for a year starts to take its toll on a person after a while. Things like swollen joints, aching back, and yes, even a little weight gain because I cannot get the same amount of activity in my day when there are words to be written. It all adds up, but so do the words (576,000 right now!).
The pain, at least, is temporary, as is the brain cramp I am wrestling through in the transition from ending one novel and returning to the middle of another. It is a skill, one I am still working on.
But as always, I will finish.
And to all of you who are struggling along to get to the end this month:
You. Will. Finish.
I am right here with you, and I completely, totally, and unflinchingly believe in you. Yes, even you with only 10,000 words written. You can do it.
And then we will all drink heavily and ice our poor broken hands. Or is that just me.
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The official blog of Michelle Tuckett, word ninja. 
Very well written article. It will be helpful to anybody who usess it, as well as myself. Keep doing what you are doing – looking forward to more posts.
Nice title. Where would we be without rambling?
I hope you complete the other half before Saturday. And I know: it’s very straining staying in the same plot for so long (as I’ve had 2 months to write 100,000 words–which I just finished yesterday!) but what I like to do is I’ll form a study group, and everybody else will study thinking that I’m on the same page with the group, but instead I’ll be in the Middle Ages walking beside my characters in a perilous forest. Then all of a sudden I hear a question on the genetics of mating between male and female from one of my study buddies. Essentially, I put myself in one environment while my brain lives in another and occasionally I’ll have to jump back and forth between the textbook and a dragon-infested woods.
I finished my NaNo yesterday and it’s partly because of the good advices you gave me so I’m sending all my positive energy to you, hoping that this is going to help you reaching the 50K before tomorrow !
And I can promise you you’re not the only one feeling that way (though I suspect it’s much harder for you since you’ve been doing this for way longer than us)
Well done PP, and nice post. We’re willing you over the finish line. That drink will taste good.