My November 12th blog was titled “The power of motivation” and within the body of that posting I wrote the following sentence: “Once I reach 50,000 words, I’ll probably stop.”
When I read my posting the next day (as I always do, to review it for errors after 24 hours have passed), something occurred to me for the first time when I re-read that particular sentence. I didn’t write, “If I reach 50,000 words.” I wrote “Once I reach 50,000 words.” In other words, I have never questioned whether or not I would write 50,000 words in 30 days. That has always been a forgone conclusion in my mind. I’ve been positive I would do it from the moment I signed-up.
Some might call that cocky; others might call it naive. I prefer “positive.” But, regardless of what you call it, visualizing the future without a shred of doubt has miraculous advantages in life; you do what it takes to “get there.”
I think this is also why I went through the exercise of creating a book cover image for Idle Hands. From the beginning, I have been picturing the end result. First, writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Second, revising and rewriting that first draft into a coherent novel. Third, submitting that novel to publishers, and then after they reject it (hey, it can’t all be positive), self-publishing it myself. For me, it is easier to picture that published novel in my hands if it has a cover. That’s going to be my reality. It just hasn’t happened… yet. But in order to get there, first thing’s first: writing 50,000 words in 30 days.
What does your future look like?
Okay, I rebounded from that horrible 0-word day, so here are my stats for NaNoWriMo for November 13th:
| Average Per Day | 1660 |
| Words Written Today | 2039 |
| Target Word Count | 50,000 |
| Target ~ Words/Day | 1,667 |
| Total Words Written | 21584 |
| Words Remaining | 28,584 |
| Current Day | 13 |
| Days Remaining | 18 |
| At this rate, you’ll finish | December 1 |
| Words/Day to finish on time | 1,579 |
Even with writing over 2,000 words yesterday, I’m still on track to finish after the deadline. See what skipping a whole day of writing gets you? I’d better not do it again… The “fun” part is that both of the “word stats” are in the 20,000’s — I’ve written 21,584 words and the number of words I have remaining is 28,584. I’m looking forward to that “exactly middle” 25,000 word milestone, with a target completion date of November 15th. That gives me 2 days of writing to crank out 3416 words, or 1708 words each day. No problem-o…
… baby steps…
President of Outskirts Press 