It’s hard to believe the month is halfway over.

My progress this month is about on track with what I expect from a CampNaNoWriMo month. I’m writing, but I’m not writing enough to reach my target. Even with a significantly lower goal this month, I’m struggling to keep up.

The problems I’m having this month are similar to the problems I’ve been having with my writing all year. I’m caught in a cycle of problems with physical and mental health. I fall behind because I’m sick for a day or two and then I end up feeling overwhelmed and anxious once I’ve recovered because I’ve fallen further behind.

I’d really like to break the cycle by writing so much that I no longer feel like I’m behind even after taking a few unexpected days off. Realistically, I know I should work on getting rid of the feeling that I need to get caught up to some self-imposed goal. I can adjust my goals and I should when I start to feel discouraged.

That’s one of my favorite things about CampNaNoWriMo. Setting my own goal helps me feel a lot less stressed out and I need to feel less guilty about lowering my goal during the month if I’m feeling overwhelmed. The custom goal is one of the best aspects of Camp and it’s okay to take advantage of a built-in feature of the event. Right now I’m only a couple thousand words behind being on target so I think I’ll see if I can make it without lowering my goal any further.

I’ve posted a bit of my progress on the new draft of The Dreams over on my Patreon. I’m collecting all of the cleaned up scenes under the “draft 3” tag. Patrons at all levels have access to all of The Dreams as I finish the scenes. So far posting the story this way has given me more confidence to experiment with this draft. One of my biggest regrets with the last draft was playing it safe with certain scenes.

How is CampNaNoWriMo going for you this month? Are you on target or thinking about lowering your goal?