Here we are! We’ve finished the first week of NaNo!

I find myself in a funny situation where I’m behind just over a whole day’s word count. I didn’t fully anticipate that, but I’m not too surprised either.

Doing NaNoWriMo can be a nearly all-consuming endeavor, but it can get overruled if you’re also working or in school while doing it. Personally, I’m a teacher, as well as a house-wife, so finding time to work on my novel in between my other obligations can be hectic.

But there’s something that I found rather helpful.

The NaNoWriMo website computes what the new word count you’ll need is. I don’t have to work it out myself or just try to finish 2 days worth of work in one day. Not only was this good for practical purposes, but it also made me feel like I could still accomplish my goal.

My new word count per day is 1739, instead of 1677. It made me realize just how little difference that actually is per day. It’s not even 100 words different, which would still be manageable, if necessary.

Here’s the thing about the first week of NaNo: it’s hard. It’s even awful sometimes. There’s no real getting around that. Your hands probably hurt, your back probably does too, and you may be feeling a little overwhelmed.

But here’s the thing. I’m over 2000 words behind my goal right now. And yet, that doesn’t mean that I still can’t catch up or at least do a little extra per day until the end of the month.

However, if I had looked at the amount I need to catch up as a lump sum I needed to accomplish, I probably would have just given up already. Right now, my schedule is pretty regularly swamped and it’s not looking like I’ll have extra time until Thanksgiving break, if then. But I didn’t have to look at it that way.

Thanks to NaNo’s website, I had the luxury to view it as a few extra words to do per day, instead of 2k words to make up all at once.

So if you’re feeling overwhelmed after this first week, don’t forget that this kind of writing schedule takes getting used to, especially if you haven’t done it before. Plus, if you’re behind, don’t look at it as “I’m X days behind”, just that its a certain number of extra words per day. And if you can do a little beyond that, you can even catch back up to the standard word count or surpass the daily requirement!

There’s no need to give up, especially after the first week. It’s fine to know when you’re beaten, but it’ll take a little more time to know that.

You can catch back up and you can still do this! Just take it one word at a time, one day at a time, until you make it!

Happy writing!