For the first time, I'm doing NaNo. That's 50,000 words in the month of November. Writing's not all about word count, but word count is something that gets you started.
Two years ago, when I was starting out, 2500 words a day (fiction) was not big deal. Easy. Then I got more and more careful, until my internal editor nitpicked at every single word as soon as it was laid down. This time last year, 500 words a day drained me. I was terrified of writing. It took quite a while to recover from that.
The bean-counting aspect of NaNo requires 1667 words/day to add up to the final 50K, but the best part is that THEY (not the wishy-washy being I like to call my inner editor/self-motivator) tell you to keep going, and not stop to micro edit what you will end up convincing yourself is a crappy draft. Above all, no throwing it all away after the first week.
So, whatever I end up with I'll have a good chunk to work with at the end of the month. First day: not bad at all: 1800+
([ETA] I realized on the second day, that this widget updates with the most recent number, as the days go by, and won't be a reliable day-by-day record for a blog.)
[ETA2] The hard part is not going back to tweak the bits that are now plaguing my mind. Written fast, what seemed to resonate on some emotional level seems all over-wrought, now. Which is why I am going to sit on my hand for the rest of the evening and NOT TOUCH THE WRITING.
And also, SHALL LEAVE IT ALONE TOMORROW, TOO.
