I had resolved to stop signing up for every challenge that came scooting across my browser, but then along came NaNoEdMo. I couldn’t resist. Though the official website is infected with bugs (don’t go there on my recommendation) the idea of counting my hours in editing and revision and comparing my progress with others was too tempting to pass up.
So I signed up.
As is my usual pattern, I was in a panic for half the month, and stockpiled hours like crazy. I hate losing challenges, and didn’t want to get caught behind because life has a way of cutting into my writing time in the most unexpected ways.Overtime at work. Migraine headaches. Car trouble. House repairs. That kind of stuff. So I had a buffer, and then a bigger buffer. Then I finished last Tuesday, five days early.
I had promised myself that I wouldn’t overshoot the mark, and so I did slow down and ended up with fifty-three hours of editing in March.
I really can keep up, if I want to. I have to ask myself though, do I want to?
These last few days, since I’m ahead, and promised myself that I wouldn’t get caught up in it, I’ve been cutting my editing time back drastically. Yesterday I only did an hour, and then stopped. Tonight I will try to do just an hour and a half, and then stop.
Why?
Because I need to find that happy medium, where I can keep up with reading and critiquing, and side projects like writing short stories—and posting on my blog! If there is anything I should know by now, it is that consistent effort produces results, and I need to put in consistent effort into other areas besides the novel-writing.
Besides, I’m in a happy place with my novel now. I have most of the scenes planned out, most of them written, in fact, and just have to go through an editing pass patching in what I’ve figured out. My story is all grown up now.
Anything else this month?
I wrote a two thousand word short story in an hour. I was inspired, and just sat down and wrote it. I’ve never done that before.
I learned that I can get through a workday on five hours of sleep, but that I can’t do it two days in a row.
I learned that I can read a YA book in one day. (Catching Fire-Book Two of Hunger Games)
I learned that I need to take a day off here and there, or do just a little bit of writing, like my morning words, to keep the juices flowing.
And I need to stop comparing my progress to that of other writers.
All of it adds up to one Big Lesson for March: I learned how to do one thing at a time.
