Word count: 19,129.

I’m excited that by tomorrow, I’ll have hit 20,000 words! Yes, I know, it still means another 30,000 to go, but I’m going to revel in the small victories as much as I can.

So I managed to put another 2,000 words onto the count today, which I’m happy about.

I’m finding another interesting thing as I’m going through this process. Recently, I guess since the weekend, when I had little time, but rushed out the little bits that I could, I’m starting to question whether what I’m writing is actually quality. Normally I’d be worried that I’m writing something that I’m not 100% happy with, but here’s the strangest thing: it’s actually very, very liberating.

It makes a strange kind of sense. Once I realise that what I’m writing isn’t perfect – that I’m going to have to come back and re-draft and fix up things once the story is finished – it’s like suddenly I’m giving myself permission to continue not being perfect …… (hmm, interesting insight … I know I’m far from perfect, yet I need to give myself permission to be that way … talk about setting yourself up for failure … anyhoo) …… where was I. Oh yeah, so now that I know that the first draft is not going to be a masterpiece in its present form, I can just let myself write these long meandering scenes that seem to have little point and inane dialog.

And that’s really the point isn’t it? Hemingway famously once said “The first draft of anything is shit” … and that’s really the heart of NaNoWriMo. If your first draft is going to be shit, then make it spectacularly shit. Because if you don’t get that first draft out, it’s not going to get any better by sitting in your head for the next ten years.