They say week two is the hard one, and I think they’re right. I’ve lost my initial steam and everything that I REALLY neglected the first week now needs my attention. There is a fine art to figuring out just how much to neglect your real life during NaNoWriMo. I was painfully drudging through the last 1,000 words I needed to meet word count last night, and that’s just an unpleasant feeling. If I was a smart little girl, I’d be NaNoWriMo’ing right now rather than procrastinating with my blog, but I’m going on the unlikely hope that this will actually pump me up and give me what I need to write today’s one-thousand, six-hundred, and sixty-seven words.

The good news is that I’ve been writing such short chapters that I can feasibly just tell myself I’m going to write a scene and then be done for the day. After so many stories where the chapters stretched on for six or seven thousand words, it’s nice to be somewhere simpler. With all the chaos of trying to publish a book and deal with literary representation, my energy and stamina for NaNoWriMo is, admittedly, diminished. However, I’ve persevered through five years of this and emerged a winner every time…I’m not going to break a winning streak like that now. I’m only halfway through the month. My second wind will hit me before long, and fill my sails up with triumphant power, putting me on a breezy path to the finish line, I’m sure.

By the way, I realize that if I’m going to be blogging about my NaNoWriMo, those of you who are in the same boat ought to know I’m “Puck Summers” on the site. Leave your username in the comments if you’re a fellow NaNoWriMo-er, and I’ll be sure to add you on the site. We’re all in this together, folks!