My National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, got off to a slow start as I wrote less than 1,000 words over the first three days of November (I need to average ~1,700 words per day to reach NaNoWriMo’s 50,000-word target).  This lackluster beginning to my seventh NaNoWriMo shouldn’t have been surprising considering I hadn’t written much since July because of several things in my non-writing life that ate up large chunks of time and sapped my creative energy.  While things have calmed down recently, I have had difficulty getting back into my writing routine, so the timing of NaNoWriMo couldn’t have been better.  I decided to use NaNoWriMo as a kick in the pants.

Fortunately I managed to get rolling.  I passed the 30,000 word mark on my novella yesterday, and I’m still going strong (today I added ~2,000 words).  That puts me almost 2/3 of the way to my NaNoWriMo target with ten days left to go—exactly where I should be at this point!  I feel good about what I’ve written, too.  The words have been good words and should need only a little editing, the story has progressed nicely with good pacing and nice detail, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the appearance of some unexpected characters and actions that have served to deepen the story and not derail it (which often isn’t the case, I find).

Provided I don’t hit any unforeseen bumps, I should successfully complete my seventh NaNoWriMo.  More importantly I’ll have the second novella in my three-novella series in draft form.  While these are good measures of success, the real measuring stick will be whether I re-establish my writing routine and get back to steady story production for the rest of 2014 and beyond.  I’m feeling good about it.  All that’s left now is to make it happen.