Day One. The Aftermath.

So I went to bed before 10 pm last night for the first time since the 90's. OK, maybe not the 90's. But close. The reasons for this were threefold.

Fold #1: Falling back an hour kicked my tush. The clock said 9:30 pm but what it MEANT was 10:30.

Fold #2: Only six hours of sleep the night before. I had gone to bed at 1:15ish (or 12:15ish after the time change), and was up at 6:15ish in an attempt to cram some quality writing time in before I had to leave for work. Then I worked from noon to 8:30, which didn't help matters much.

Fold #3: I figured since I didn't get much accomplished after work, I'd just give it up for the day, get a solid night's sleep, and get up early to crank out some wordage.

So here I am. It's a few minutes before 7, I have my steaming cup of tea beside me, and I'm looking out the window at a gorgeous sunrise. And I have no desire to work on my book. Well, a little desire. But not much.

As for Day One, well, I only ended up with a meager 522 words. If one is to be a successful participant in NaNoWriMo, one must rack up a daily average of at least 1,667 words. So I'm starting out Day Two with a deficit of over 1,100 words. Ouch.

On the bright side, if memory serves me correctly, I began last year's NaNoWriMo in much the same way, with a pitiful word count the first couple of days. Plus I spent the majority of November always a little behind where I needed to be. But I made it. Of course, it was stressful and nail-biting and frustrating to be perpetually nipping at the heels of my goal, so I vowed to charge out of the gate next time with a hefty word count and a nice, strong lead. Ha.

Part of my problem is I want to revise as I go. This is strongly discouraged for the NaNoWriMo participant, for obvious reasons. But I'll save my thoughts on revision for another time. I suppose I'd better stop racking up a nice word count here, in this rather comfortable writing environment, and get back to the harsh, frozen tundra of trying to write a novel in 30 days. Cheers.