In the traditional NaNoWriMo world, the first week is always the energetic with big word counts and good momentum while the second week is typically more challenging with bigger hiccups and plot concerns.
The first week tends to be so easy because you take the time before November 1st to consider your story and get some exciting ideas. Once you start writing you are completely open to start building your blank characters in any way you desire. You describe them through details or their adventures and you start building your plot. Often you need to do quite a bit of story-telling to set up specific events that progress your story forward and it's easy to richly describe things that are so vivid in your head.
By the time the second weeks arrives you tend to get stuck on ideas. Generally you have gotten the ball rolling and your partially developed characters are waiting for instruction but you tend to realize that you are moving more quickly to your story finale than you are towards your word goal. So if you're like me, you need to stall. This is where your characters can have side adventures that sometimes work out well and sometimes can go nowhere. Furthermore, coming up with these good detours can be a heavy weight on your shoulders, especially since you are quite proud of the material you have put down so far.
This year has not been like that at all. My first week was difficult. I couldn't find my voice, I wasn't sure who I wanted my characters to be so I wouldn't even try to develop them. It was kind of all over the place and I found myself stalling before I even got going. Then the second week hit and I galloped forward without specifically heading towards my finale. My characters came to life and I got to start explaining some shit and building my story. It was a true NaNoWriMo miracle.
Now by the 15th (yesterday) you want to be sitting around 25K because for obvious reasons, it's the halfway point. And I can happily say, that I was just ahead of it. So what did I do? I had a mini write-a-thon with my sole remaining NaNoWriMo friend. (Since one never got started and one who enthusiastically started gave up where he always does). Happily, it was a great evening of writing and I am now just shy of 30K (not to mention that my story is coming together nicely).
From here it is all down-hill. I have completed half of what I need in less than fifteen days and with fifteen days remaining it seems even easier to repeat that success. Before I know it, this glorious month of writing frenzy will be over and I can pat myself on the shoulder and feel inspired to go back and finally work on one of those drafts from years before.
When I first started this month I was really struggling to find my creativity. My creativity levels were at an all-time low and since I had barely challenged myself in the last year it was difficult to get those creative juices flowing once again. Somewhere along the lines I abandoned the idea of writing the perfect story and instead focused myself on writing a fun one and because of it, the amazing little creative coincidences that I love so much have been popping up everywhere. (Don't get me wrong, the inconsistencies that I know I am putting into my story at times still haunt me a bit.)
Now if I can keep up this pace and meet a few short-term goals in the next week, I should be able to aim for the unofficial goal of 60K that I set for myself early on. For now, I'm going to keep moving forward and see what surprises my characters bring me.
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