NaNo vs. All The Things

By the time this post goes live, it’s very possible that I will be two days behind on my wordcount.

Wednesday night, I had the honor and privilege to meet Chris Baty, founder of National Novel Writing Month. The Johnson County Resource Center hosted him, and he talked about NaNo for an hour then opened the floor for questions, and then autographs and talking one-on-one. I made my normal impression that I make on anyone even remotely famous of being a gigantic tool, so I left feeling slightly depressed, but overall, his speech was informative, motivating, and hilarious. I wrote down some of my most favorite Baty-isms, so I’ll have to share them one of these days.

In the meantime. I’m really struggling. I knew I had spread myself too thin this November, and it caught up to me after only a week. Now, we’re past week two, and I’m asking my tired-looking reflection in the mirror, how the hell am I going to make it for another two weeks at this pace?

Realistically, I don’t think I’m going to be able to. It’s hard for me to talk about this stuff, since I am one of the municipal liaisons for the region, so I feel like I need to be nothing but pep and encouragement and present a strong face to the group at all times. But at the same time, I’m also just a participant that has just as many insecurities as any newbie. And this year I am BUSY.

I’m not actually planning on giving anything up right now, but I am weighing my options. Sadly, the one thing I’m not actually contracted to do right now is write my words for NaNo. I’m contracted to be ML, I’m contracted to do my editing internship, I’ve paid thousands of dollars to complete this editing certificate program and now I’m just one discussion assignment and the final exam away from finishing. I have to keep going to the day job to make money to, y’know, live. I signed up for a gym membership so I have to go at least a few times a week to make that worthwhile (plus I owe it to myself to keep in shape).

I’ve already let the housework go almost completely. I’ve given up on reading and my shows for the month. The only other thing I can give up besides writing is sleep. That hasn’t been working so well.

Something’s got to give. And it might be NaNo.

I truly hope it doesn’t come to that. It will be the first NaNo in seven years where I won’t hit 50k if I do slow down or stop writing.

But I just don’t think I can keep doing all the things.

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