I received an email this morning from the kind folks over at NaNoWriMo, not one specifically for me but just a general email for everyone on their list. The subject reads, “Keep working! You’re halfway there!”, and I know they mostly mean that we’re halfway through November (which, holy crap, already??). Yet they also mean that, if you’re sticking to writing 50,000 words during the month, then ostensibly, you’re about 25,000 words in.

I’m here to report on my own behalf that, uh, no, I am most certainly not halfway. Not even close, in fact. Which is okay! It gives me the excuse to procrastinate and write literally anything else — like this post! So that’s fun!

In all seriousness, though, I feel like it’s important to share the struggle because that’s why NaNoWriMo sent an email like that. Some people might really be halfway, maybe even over halfway, and that’s awesome! There are some people who probably aren’t halfway, too, like myself, and they need the motivation, the clarity, hell, even some rest. It might be obvious that 50,000 words is a lot of words; however, I’m going to emphasize that that many words amounts to around 150 pages in total. If you want to write 50,000 words in a month, you have to aim for writing about five pages a day (that’s double-spaced, in case you’re wanting to check my math). So it’s the goal of NaNoWriMo for a reason: that number of words truly is the length of a novel, and — let’s be honest — a pretty short novel at that.

I’ve barely cracked 5,000 words. That’s my total so far, and here’s the real kicker, none of that is part of a single novel. I’ve written 5,000 words that are pulling on loose threads from previous works, that are maybe forming into new ideas, and that, ultimately, might not see the light of day. I like to think that I’ve written 5,000 words so far, which I believe is the most I’ve put down at any one time since I started having kids, and that I’m far from done. There’s still half of November left to go, after all! I’m still going through with writing as much as I can every day until the month is over, and of course, beyond that.

For this NaNoWrimo, from my personal experience, I guess the one thing to be glad of and proud of is that… I feel like I’ve still got it. Writing continues to be what I love to do and what I want to do, and this might be me tooting my own horn at this point, but I’m still pretty damn good at it. I’m so happy that I can come back to it, that I didn’t let my spark disappear or leave my skills to rot. There’s quite a bit of relief I’ve had this month, to say the least. Don’t worry, writing continues to be hard as well, it’s a lot of work, and it expends so much energy and consumes so much time, especially now with more things in my life that I have to learn to balance. So maybe 50,000 words in a single month hasn’t been realistic for me and might never be. But man, is it worth it to at least try every year! I keep reminding myself of so many worthwhile things because of it.

Anyway, happy early Thanksgiving, and I’ll see the rest of you kind folks on the other side. 🙂 We’ll see what my total ends up being by November 30th!