NaNo check-in

It's day 19 of NaNoWriMo and I am having some feelings.

Originally, I wasn't going to write a post on NaNo until the month was over, but I'm at a point where I feel like a check-in is due, so here we are! A little-more-than-halfway check-in!

Time to get serious

August is always my worst training month. I'm not a fan of relentless sun, and by August we've already gotten eight weeks of it. Sunrise is at like 5am in the summer, so beating the sun and getting in a cool run is nearly impossible. And yes, I understand the irony of these complaints considering I spent the first dozen years of my running "career" in Florida. But I've discovered the joy of chilly, rainy runs, and now I find myself resentful of the heat.

More leaves, less heat

So in July I tend to fall off my training, and by August I'm often barely doing anything. That's not great considering I need to shift from a rest-mindset into a super-focused-training mindset by September for my February half.

No books, just words

Despite having a long list of books available at the library right now, I am holding off borrowing any this month. Instead, I am focusing on writing.

In the last few months I've reached 50,000 words in my current manuscript. I'm aiming for a total around 70,000. That goal has always been sort of abstract, fully missing the T in SMART. I've been taking my time and writing a few times a week, enjoying the process without worrying too much about the destination.

It's been a long time since I've made this much progress on a novel!

I'm not sure what happened, but in the last week of October I started thinking about NaNoWriMo and how it might be a good opportunity to set a goal to finish this draft by November 30.

October Reads

 

I didn't actually intend to read anything this month, but three books I've been waiting for became available to borrow mid-month, so I jumped on them all before my holds lapsed. One was a hyped-up fantasy I'd been waiting months for, and the other two were the next in the Gaslight Mystery series. Spoiler alert: I enjoyed them all.