1,667 Words A Day: Nanoing During An Election

 Hello, readers! Like all of you, I am constantly scrolling through Twitter for any kernel, crumb, speck of information that can alleviate my anxiety and tell me who is going to win this election, and equally important who is getting my state of Pennsylvania--because, dammit, I worked hard for this. And like you all, I also have to work, parent, cook, check homework, and Nano (yes, I'm using it as a verb). 

What was I thinking tackling NaNo in 2020?!

I'd stopped doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) a long time ago. I had made many, many, many attempts to write 50K words in a month and I had always fallen short within the first week. And as we know, once you fall behind, it's hard to make up the word count. It seemed like so much undue pressure, and I had always failed. But, alas, this year (of all years) I have decided to try again.

Sisters in Crime, which I belong to, decided to take up the NaNoWriMo mantle and they hosted a killer opening day crowdcast featuring brilliant mystery authors such as Kellye Garrett, Catriona McPherson, Sara Paretsky, Lori Rader-Day. Everyone popped in for a little bit and offered  their tips for drafting quickly. It was so inspiring and so communal that I realized I can write 50K words in a month. Hell, I've written 5K words a day. I can do this and I want to. Also I need to finish this draft before the year is up.

As I get older, I've become a more efficient writer and I've accepted that I can write crappy and polish it up in revisions. And even in this hectic of hectic times, as long as I set up 90 minutes, I can drop 1,667 words into the draft. Not amazing words, but they're there nevertheless.

Which reminds me, I must get drafting. Maybe when I'm done, we'll have elected our president.