THOUGHTS: Deadlines & Duties

Deadlines & duties; or better known as my adventurous commitment to writing 1,667 words per day for 30 days while dealing with a lot of other life commitments. How do I manage my time? What is more and less important during this month?

Let me go ahead and mention that as of right now I am 10,000 words behind on my word count. Does that make me any less of a NaNoWriMo-er? I don’t think so, because let’s get on thing straight: NaNoWriMo is hard!

Where have I gone wrong so far? Well, while 1,667 is totally a doable word count, sometimes life messes that up. I should go ahead and mention that time management is not a strength that I mention during interviews for jobs.

So this post is here to serve the purpose of helping others during this month as well as myself in all time management heavy endeavors I shall make thus forth in my life. My deadline is midnight, November 30^th, and my current duties are many. But is NaNoWriMo really just a goal, or is it more of a process to learn and to grow as writers?

November is a big month for me. It’s my first full month of a brand new job that has me working Monday through Friday 8-6, which is incredibly adult of me and I don’t usually do adult. It is also the one-year anniversary of my girlfriend and I becoming a couple, and it’s honestly the first time I’ve really had money in about a month or two.

It has been a crazy year, and the first month where this year isn’t innately crazy, I decide to go and make it a little crazy. This is the first year that I’m completely committed to completely NaNoWriMo. I’ve made commitments to myself these last couple of years, but this is the year. I had my story idea and very detailed outline prepped and ready for November 1^st. I may be behind, but I’m determined. Plus, I’m taking this first official year as more of a process trial run, so that I don’t feel completely overwhelmed. I get overwhelmed easily.

So what is this post all about? It’s my written commitment to finally be a NaNoWriMo winner for one. For two, it’s a tip to others and to myself on how to succeed during this crazy month of November.

Deadlines are important and should not be feared. They should be welcomed and loved like baby animals. While it’s great to have a schedule and maintain your time management, it’s also important to have deadlines and not to neglect your other duties during NaNoWriMo. This is so easy to do in the heat of writer’s frenzy.

I’m vegan (which involves a lot of cooking food for my meals), three beautiful dogs, a full-time job, bills, an amazing girlfriend, and a lot of TV shows to keep up with. I was bound to get behind on my word count this month. I had just hoped it wouldn’t happen till later on, or in less of an amount. But things happen. That’s the joy of a deadline. It holds you accountable even when life messes up your daily word count.

Sure, there’s a point when some people get so far behind that they simply cannot come back, but I am. The goal is to keep swimming even when you’re drowning. Writer’s block happens to everyone, and they still eventually recover. I’ve been through college, so deadlines definitely make me accountable.

And honestly, that’s what this post is all about. Different things work for different people, but we as writers and reading have to have something to hold ourselves accountable to both our paying and our recreational duties. No duty is more important that the other, but they have to be managed and taken care of in a certain order that only the owner of said duties knows.

XOXO Tia