Welcome to week 2 of Camp NaNoWriMo! This week has gone by in a blur and it’s had its highs and lows. I’m going to talk a bit about how things are going with me, but if you’d rather not have that, you can scroll down to my small bit on writing when you’re really busy.
WANT THE WHOLE CAMP NANO JOURNEY?
Read about the final week – yay!
Day 4
Catch up day! I got in about 2,000 words on the road and hit the 5K mark. After that I allowed myself to do other things like read (because I have a lot of e-ARCs, ahahaha).
Day 5
This was more of a “I need to get this done” day. I was pushing myself to reach my quota, because I can’t risk falling even more behind. With 7,830 words, I’m actually almost caught up to where I’m supposed to be. The Camp NaNo site predicts I’ll finish on the first of August at this rate, which isn’t bad.
Day 6
This was a tough day. I pushed myself a lot on this day and spent a longer time trying to reach my quota. But finally I got into the zone and ended up with 10,008 words in total.
Day 7
At this point I was tiring of working so hard on the same project. So I took the day off and wrote at night instead, when my mind was utterly, but not completely, exhausted. Although the task itself wasn’t too hard, I ended up going to bed at 2 in the morning. Total: 11,242 words.
Day 8
I couldn’t get much time to write on this day, so I wrote at night again. Because I was tired and not entirely sure how to get from one plot point to another, I was falling behind on my goals again, reaching 12,005 words. I’m hoping to catch up soon, because while this isn’t too bad, I’d rather be ahead of than behind schedule.
Day 9
Oof. Day 9 was a hard one. Demotivation struck, and added with a pinch of “help what am I actually doing”, it was very slow going and I’m unfortunately still behind, although hopefully not for long.
Day 10
Things picked up a bit on day 10! Back on the road for a while, I managed to dig up some fun-ish scenes and write those. As I write this now, I’ve hit 14,813 words – still behind, of course, but fairly good progress in my opinion. I do plan on writing more today, but well, this post has to get out, too.
Update: I hit exactly the daily goal for today! 16,129 words – yay 🙂
Writing when your schedule is packed
All right, so what did I learn from all of this? Don’t get me wrong, it is hard to write when you’re busy with other things. It all comes down to two things you have to keep in mind:
- Opportunity
- Priorities
Opportunity
With a packed schedule, you have to keep tabs on how much free time you have. If it’s a 20 minute bus ride there and back from work or school, use that. Write before bed or in the morning, if you can afford to lose a little sleep. Go off of social media if you find yourself spending too long on there. Just see what opportunities you can snatch up to get a bit of writing done.
Priorities
How much time you spend writing also depends on your priorities. If you really want to meet your goal by the end of a challenge, you’ll spend more time working towards it. This might mean temporarily giving up things you might do more often like reading, procrastinating, that kind of thing.
However, if you feel you cannot meet your goal and it’s just not the season for you, then maybe you need to put writing aside. If you have higher priorities, then you might need to write at a different time. Don’t pressure yourself if you really can’t take on another challenge.
That’s all I have for you!
If you’re doing Camp NaNo this month, how is it going for you? How are you managing your schedule? Talk to me in the comments below!
All the best,
