Doyce offers sage counsel on falling behind during NaNoWriMo. Which happens. It’s happened to me in the past (and may in the future) and it’s happened with Katherine. Because stuff happens.
And the answer to getting out of a hole (and, to be sure, avoiding getting into one)?
Thing is, this month, you need to have that “get it done anyway” attitude about writing. Even though you love it, because the day will come where you just don’t feel like it or you get discouragingly behind on your word count and you want to give up. You especially need to have that attitude on the day after you blew your writing goal and you have catching up to do. You’re going to have to take more than four of those elephant bites today; sit at the keyboard longer; stay up later than you’d like, and wake up tired.
It’s called “overtime”; butt in the chair, hands on the ‘board. Tappity tap.
Yup. The ground — the needed aggregate word count — is sinking beneath you. How do you get out of a hole? First step: stop digging.
Which means working. In fact it means working harder, because you’re behind. Yesterday you needed 1,667 words. Today you need 3,334. Tomorrow you’ll need — etc.
It won’t get any easier. But it’s doable. It’s like being in debt, debt that’s earning interest. If you do nothing, it just gets worse. If you do something, you can hold your own. You can catch up.
So you’re behind.
Big deal. So am I. I’m gonna fix it.
Tonight, I’ll write until I get caught up. Tomorrow, I’ll write some more.
“Weekend” is just another word for “no one’s fucking interrupting me.”
Overtime. Work. Fun work, most of the time, but work.
Get to it. Let the pixies take care of themselves.
You can even do that “elephant” thing, one bite at a time. So you’re down 3,300 words? Split the difference. Write 2,500. Yeah, it’s more than the 1,700 you’ve been struggling with … but less than 3,300. You’re paying the interest and cutting into the principle, And tomorrow you can write the same amount — and you’ll be caught up.
But you gotta write. Somehow. One word after another. Like walking home — you can get there slowly or you can get there fast, but if you don’t move your feet, you won’t get there at all.
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