November 14

• Project: The Dreams
• Total word count: 15,630
• Today’s word count: 596
• Thoughts: Well, I wrote. It’s better than I’ve been doing for most of this year, but I am getting so discouraged while trying to reach my NaNoWriMo goal this month. Reaching 50,000 in a single month is always a challenge. This year is just more challenging than the past few. Do I think I can still win? Maybe. I don’t know. I’m going to keep trying.
• Tomorrow’s goal: I would love to take a walk, but it is supposed to be about 20 degrees colder than last week and the forecast is up in the air about whether we’ll have rain or not. I want to go, but I really don’t want to deal with the weather. Either way, I’m going to work my butt off to write as much as possible. Hopefully that will actually result in a decent number of words. Maybe I’ll even start to get caught up?

November 15

• Project: The Dreams (bonus scene)
• Total word count: 2,155
• Thoughts: There was a silly nonsense scene my characters insisted I needed to write. I’m not putting it in the story because as far as I can tell it exists outside the canon timeline. Some of the circumstances of the story seem like they’re near the beginning and others are from much later on. It’s silly. It’s useless. It’s written.
• Tomorrow’s goal: Back to business. I think I got this diversion out of my system.

November 16

• Project: The Dreams
• Total word count: 15,842
• Today’s word count: 212
• Thoughts: Today was not a good day. My nephew has been sick and I babysat him this afternoon. It was hard on both of us. He just wanted his mom. I wasn’t his mom. Before that I was stressing about babysitting because I knew he wasn’t feeling well. Afterward I was mentally and physically exhausted. I wish I could’ve written more, but it wasn’t going to happen.
• Tomorrow’s goal: More writing. It’s going to be a cold and windy day. I’m staying inside and doing everything I can to be cozy. Hopefully that will translate into plenty of writing.

November 17

• Project: The Dreams
• Total word count: 16,169
• Today’s word count: 327
• Thoughts: Everything about today was very medium. I could focus but not for long and I ran out of steam pretty quickly. I’m hoping the weekend will bring more focus but I’m not sure I have much reason to hope.
• Tomorrow’s goal: After errands I should have time to write. It will just come down to how well I’m able to settle down and block out all distractions. Hopefully it will all work out.

November 18

• Project: The Dreams
• Total word count: 16,237
• Today’s word count: 68
• Thoughts: It just wasn’t a good day. I felt okay enough while we were out running errands. However, as the day progressed, I started to feel more and more off. I’m probably getting whatever bug my nephew had. My sister is already sick so I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.
• Tomorrow’s goal: I’m hoping I can find more calm and focus even if I continue to not feel the best. Every day is a new chance and I want to take it.

November 19

• Project: The Dreams
• Total word count: 16,440
• Today’s word count: 203
• Thoughts: I had another really medium day. It was definitely better than yesterday. I did briefly get some focus and managed to write with some amount of flow. I just couldn’t hold onto the focus. Once it was gone, I couldn’t get it back.
• Tomorrow’s goal: All I need to do is find my focus. It sounds easy. It’s not. Everything is a potential distraction. I don’t know what I need to do to really get into the zone. I’ve done it before, but it felt more like magic than anything I did intentionally to bring about the intense focus.

November 20

• Project: The Dreams
• Total word count: 17,154
• Today’s word count: 714
• Thoughts: Today would have been a great writing day during any other month. However, this is NaNoWriMo and I’m so far behind. It’s going to be a rough end of the month if I want to have any hope of winning. It’s not as though I did nothing but try to write today. I had a good bit of time and I think that’s reflected in the amount I did write, but it was interrupted by a number of things I needed to do around the house. If I was in a better headspace, I’m sure I could easily get to 1,667 words every day with the time I allot to writing. My mental health just isn’t in great shape and hasn’t been for the last few years. I don’t think I’m alone in that regard. I just hope we can all find some peace and get back to place where we can create things without it being a huge endeavor each and every day.
• Tomorrow’s goal: I’m hoping for a day like today but bigger and better. I don’t know if that’s possible. My writing endurance is incredibly low even after 20 days of consistent writing effort. Things will get better eventually, but I’m not sure how much I can hope for the month of November.