Week 3 of NaNoWriMo had ended. Time is running out and my word count is running up. Less than ten days left now and less than 10,000 words for me to write! It’s gone so fast and I’m anxious to get finished the novel and start the editing process.

NaNo Day 15:

Today I celebrated my halfway mark. I ate cookies for breakfast, drank a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks, and got a tasty burrito from Sheetz. Hitting this point has confirmed two things in my mind. 1) Not that I didn’t know this, but I really only feel right when I’m writing. Every time I take a short break and don’t write for days, I don’t think I’m missing much until I’m back at my keyboard, writing everyday and feeling the thrill run through my veins like liquid joy. I love writing. This is why I’m a writer. 2) I will win NaNoWriMo. I never honestly doubted I would. I know how I write and unless something went majorly wrong, I knew I’d make it. At every milestone I reach, and as I stay ahead day after day, I have no worries.

Daily Word Count: 2,136
Cumulative Word Count: 27,241

NaNo Day 16:

Yay, another Saturday! I got in plenty of writing time, even went out to dinner with my hubby and daughter and did some running around. My little stat bar is reaching far above the line where I need to be in order to finish in time. At this rate, I’ll finish several days early. It wasn’t my biggest writing day, but I’m feeling tired, so I’m knocking off a little early in order to get in some reading time. I’ve been reading Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, which was written as a NaNo project a few years ago.

Daily Word Count: 3,312
Cumulative Word Count: 30,553

NaNo Day 17:

Another great day of writing fraught with interruptions and distractions. I was hoping to hit something like 3-4k, but came no where near that! Still ahead though, and my lead has grown to several thousand over the 28,339 that I need to be at. No time for slacking, though! I want to get this novel done :)

Several of my fellow NaNo-ers have already finished. What an accomplishment to do it in half the time! Sadly, some others that started strong have fallen greatly behind or have stopped updating word counts altogether. Hoping they can jump back in and get things moving again! Here’s a reality check. Two weeks from now NaNoWriMo will be over! (And five weeks from now, Christmas will be days away.)

Daily Word Count: 1,869
Cumulative Word Count: 32,422

NaNo Day 18:

I’ve settled into a nice routine. I’ve heard it said that if you do something for 21 days in a row, it becomes a habit. It’s only been 18, but it already feels normal and expected for me to wake up and write in the mornings and in the evenings. The morning is the best for me or late at night. Anytime when the house is quiet and free from distractions. It is a little bit of a sacrifice to have my favorite morning writing time. I have to get to bed early enough so I’m not too tired the next day. I have to not allow myself to sleep in, saying that I can write later or I don’t need to write right now. I guess that is the point of a habit, though. You do it often enough that you no longer have excuses or want to make them.

I am starting to feel like the end is in sight for my novel. Not near, but in sight. I’m very close to the halfway point, I think. It’s feeling like the final book will be more like 70,000 than 80,000, but I’m usually surprised by how much longer it ends up being in the end.

Daily Word Count: 2,103
Cumulative Word Count: 34,525

NaNo Day 19:

Still cruising through, still keeping my routine. I wrote in the morning and I wrote in the evening. I’m looking forward to the write-in tomorrow and I’m almost finished Fangirl. All in all, it’s starting to feel like this is just life. This is how it should be and this is how it always will be. :) Life is good!

Daily Word Count: 2,527
Cumulative Word Count: 37,052

NaNo Day 20:

Two thirds through. I can’t believe we’re in the home stretch already. It feels like we’ve just gotten started! At almost 40,000 words, though, I am fully confident that I will finish ahead of time. The write-in tonight was a blast. For me, the community part of NaNoWriMo has been absolutely my favorite part of this process. I can always write and I usually write a lot. But only during NaNo do people on Facebook announce their word counts and champion mine. There is so much encouragement and fun, I wish it could be NaNoWriMo every month!

Daily Word Count: 2,401
Cumulative Word Count: 39,453

NaNo Day 21:

Well, this morning it happened. 40,000 words! Having only 10,000 words to go seems like such a small amount. I’m thinking there’s maybe a chance I’ll finish this weekend! Though, maybe not quite. I’ll lose my Friday night writing session since I’ll be in an IMAX theater watching Catching Fire! And in preparing for The Hunger Games, (plus a math and reading night for my daughter at school), I ended up with some awesome nails, but not an awesome word count.

Daily Word Count: 820
Cumulative Word Count: 40,278