I write with great excitement. I am about 1200 words away from finishing my 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo. I have written 48,767 words this month. Today, I have written just under 3500 words (not including this post), and I have spent less than an hour writing at my computer. I have to make the time count when I have time to write. The children are very understanding; if I say that I am sitting down for twenty minutes to work on my story, they leave me in peace and quiet so I can concentrate, and I get lots of words done that way. The words have been flowing quickly because I am excited about my story. It’s a bit like when I read something I love, and I read it as quickly as I can to find out what is about to happen… The thing is, however, that I don’t always know what is about to happen as I am writing. Sometimes I write an idea down and it blooms before me, rapidly and without my real attention to it.

At first, when I was feeling tentative about doing NaNo this year, I honestly did not think that I could get the words done. It was difficult to put aside the time to work on it, and several things have been sacrificed so I can write. Like my Christmas cakes. I have not sewn anything for a week, despite the fact that Christmas is fast approaching. I have managed a bit of gardening, planting daisies around the place (I have an obsession with daisies; they are so dainty and pretty!). Gardening keeps me a bit sane, as it is a time when I am alone with my own thoughts, tending to pretty things.

Now, after nearly four weeks of writing practically every day, I cannot imagine not writing. It has been such a release for me; taking a few moments to let my imagination run a bit wild whilst I tap madly on the keyboard. As I work on my story, my ideas keep developing further, and I get more interested in what I am writing. I think about my characters a fair bit. I have been waking up at night wondering about them. Perhaps I am going a little bit crazy. I have been so intent on winning at this thing.

Using Write or Die has been a great tool for me, as I set a time limit on myself in which to type. It makes it easy to say to Monte or the children that I will only write for twenty minutes or so. Invariably, I go over time, but my family has been supportive of me in this venture.

What NaNoWriMo has taught me confirms what I have been hearing for years. The only thing stopping me from writing is that I was not writing. I have not been sitting down and just writing the stories that have come into my head. Actually doing that now is very exciting for me. I am also learning to separate the writing process from the editing process. They are two different processes. One is to get the ideas/stories down and the other is to make the writing as accurate as possible. The editing process of my NaNo writing is going to take a long time. When I am writing under pressure, or at speed, the words I choose to use are not always the best. I don’t need to be perfect though. I just want to learn and have fun during the process. My story might never even be read by another soul, but when I finish it, I will feel like I have accomplished a great goal of mine.