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First Day

Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo 2016. That’s National Novel Writing Month to those of you not paying attention.

I started at midnight. I joined fellow writers at Denny’s on North Division in Spokane just a little before midnight on Halloween, set up the laptop and got ready.

Apple crisp and coffee. Check.

Scrivener up with new document. Check.

Power. Check.

Our municipal liaison got everyone ready and counted down. At 12:00 midnight, we all started.

I wrote for about an hour and got a little more than 600 words into the new first draft. Then I packed it up and drove home. Had I not just spent the day getting ready for Halloween, spending the evening wondering if we would get any trick-or-treaters and playing with the grandkids that did show up, I might have stayed longer.

As it is, I had an early errand. Once done, we got home and I got busy again. So, I got a total of 1,883 words. Nice start for the first day.

If you do the math, you realize you can average about 1,667 words per day for 30 days you’ll have 50,000 words. But, November has holidays and other interruptions that will tear into your word count quickly if you don’t put a little more on your daily word count. In the past, I tried to stick to 2,200 words. That helps cover those days where you just have too much to do with the family.

Like Thanksgiving.

Black Friday.

Football.

You get the idea.

If you stumble one or two days and fall behind, know that with some determination and grit, you can get back in the race. Try to keep your goals sustainable. Write on!

Keep writing.

P.S. By the way, today, November 1, is National Author’s Day. Yipee!