Learning curve

So there goes November in fact here we are now well into December. There goes my first time taking part in National Novel Writing Month - how was it for you?
Well for me my total word count was 22,673 words, not quite halfway to the magical 50,000 words. But that is 22,673 words more than I may have written otherwise. I joined it for a bit of a kick start, a bit of fun and to see if I could do it. I'm not going to say I 'failed' or didn't do it, hey I was in the rebel group from the start due to writing a memoir, and I have learnt such a lot from just having a go.

I discovered surprisingly that the best time for me to get a lot of writing done undisturbed and undistracted is early morning, setting my alarm earlier and having an hour from 6-7am was a great kick start and revelation. But as I also discovered if you have a tendency for insomnia then getting up at 6am is not always feasible especially if you've only got to sleep two hours beforehand.

Of course I have to earn a living too and a couple of unexpected work related trips away also ate into the writing plans. And I found that once I was behind on my self imposed daily targets it was difficult to catch up- the plan B back up plan of whole day(s) dedicated to just writing never happened. I do however now know that I do need a plan, some structure and targets to work with to give some kind of impetus and measure of progress. Just waiting for the muse to strike and words to flow won't work for me.

On the positive side thanks to NaNo:
I have written 22,673 words of a memoir that I want to carry on with
I have been to and enjoyed my first ever writing workshop
I have started this blog
I have been writing other things too including an article published on another website
It's helped me realise what I enjoy and what I'd like to be doing
It's helped me realise that even though I enjoy and like to be writing, distractions are many and discipline is needed!

Would I do it again? Yes, definitely. But not just once a year, I think I'll have my own kind of NaNo every month from now on (here's another 422 words added to December's total!)