National Novel Writing Month: The First Twelve Days.

This is my first blog post in over two weeks. I have been too busy writing fiction to blog. I am doing National Novel Writing Month and have written 18,544 words for a new novel over the past 12 days. The aim is to write 50,000 words by the end of the month, an average of 1667 words a day. So far, I have made that average on ten of the twelve days, with my daily totals varying from 1303 to 1887 words.

I have done NaNoWriMo twice before. This time, it is a lot harder due to tiredness caused by the medication I am taking for my ulcerative colitis. The crappy disease became active again about six weeks ago. It appeared to go away for about a week, but it returned. I am tired, so I need to get ahead with my writing because things happening at the end of the month will eat into writing time (assuming my UC disappears). I am only 111 words ahead of schedule.

But the tiredness has not wrecked my reawakened enthusiasm for writing, which is my main reason for doing NaNoWriMo. I find myself thinking about the novel all the time: while watching the news, while walking, while people are talking to me. It’s a half-hour walk to town, and I have spent much of that time scribbling notes on a pad. On many days, I go for a walk before writing, so when I get home and turn on the computer, my character’s thoughts and actions are raring to flow.

So it’s a battle between enthusiasm and tiredness; hopefully, the former wins.