On My Writing: Final Camp Nano Numbers

Camp Nano is over. The last official day for writing was last Thursday. I didn't win. I didn't hit 50,000 words which was my goal. And yes, that is disappointing. I ended up with 38,359 words. And in actuality it's 10k less because I came into Camp with 10k words already written. So really I wrote less than 30,000 words. But that doesn't mean I failed. In fact, I consider myself very successful. Know why? Because I got myself into a writing habit.

I only write for about an hour and fifteen minutes a day. Doesn't seem like much time does it? No, but it's what I have right now and it's much better than nothing. I do that five days a week, Monday through Friday. I'd like to start writing more on the weekends, but things always come up and I can never find the time. But for now I'm happy with what I'm doing.

In that hour and fifteen minutes, I can write between 2,000 and 3,000 words. That means that I'm writing between 10,000 and 15,000 words per week. Let's say my novel is going to be around 80,000 words. That means that in just two months, possibly less, I will have completed my first draft. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. For a girl who works full time, works out four days a week, reads a million books, blogs, finds time to cook, do normal life things like grocery shop and laundry, talk to my family and spend time with Phil and my friends? I'm pretty freaking happy with that.

So no, I'm not a Camp Nano winner. But I'm not upset about that. The important lesson that I've taken from Camp is that you have to find time to write, no matter what. If it's a dream that you want badly enough you need to make time for it. I can't sit here and complain about my job or lament that I'll never be published and then never write. That's stupid and completely unproductive. I can however, sacrifice one hour of sleep, get up an hour earlier than normal so I can squeeze in a few thousand words before I have to run off to my day job.

All of us have goals and dreams. It doesn't matter what it is or how impossible it seems. If you want something you have to go after it. You have to take control of your life and your goals and make it happen. I don't know if I'll ever be published. But I know for sure that I won't if I don't even try. So thank you to Camp Nano for teaching me that and for getting me into a good writing habit.

Do you have any big goals? Share them with me and share how you're working towards them!