The Reality Check (In)

It's time to check in again.

After adjusting my daily word count goal (while keeping the weekly and final goals the same), I have thus far succeeded in writing on the new schedule. Today is also expected to be a success. (Monday through Wednesday are usually not in question, unless laziness REALLY sets in at lunchtime. It happens... but not usually.)

Still having the same problems with the story that I've been having all along, although I've determined how some of the characters will finally meet up. I think I've also figured out how not to make this an "overwhelming odds" kind of deal and what and why the critters are.

Now the hurdle becomes how to get the last two characters in on the "fun." And that whole ending thing that I always have trouble with.

***

Something occurred to me after reading Craig Hansen's comment to my last entry. As usual I was berating myself for my lack of weekend writing. My threat (to self) was to turn this in to a non-November NaNoWriMo until I caught up to my overall goal, and Mr. Hansen said that I didn't have to do that. I could change my goal.

This is true. If I were one of those people who had a wife, kids, two jobs, and countless commitments that I had to juggle -- you know, someone with a life -- I might have to stop and contemplate whether I'd bitten off more than I could chew taking on a writing challenge like ROW80.

But I don't have those things. (Especially a life.) It's just me, being too lazy to open up my document to remember where I was. Too lazy to go to 750words.com to write. Just plain too lazy. Seriously -- 750 words a day is NOT a huge number of words. If I can write 1,667 words every day in November, there is no rational reason I can't write 750 the rest of the year.

For me, NaNoWriMo works because there is an arbitrary goal and an arbitrary deadline to reach it. There are no excuses. You either make the word count or you don't. While Mr. Hansen raises a valid point that once people start to fall behind, they opt to drop out rather than stretch their limits, I feel that those people often sell themselves short or didn't realize the amount of effort writing can take.

With NaNoWriMo, you have to make yourself write if you hope to "win" the challenge. You don't get to simply pay lip service while the words magically write themselves. If you don't write, you don't win. (And as I say to my Word Warriors, the only REAL way to lose is by quitting.)

I'm looking at ROW80 the same way. I've set myself an arbitrary goal that's easier to obtain than the NaNoWriMo goal. (One month per year of frantic writing is enough for me, thanks.) Kait Nolan has already given us our arbitrary deadline: 80 days. By the end of this round, I will either make the time to write and meet my arbitrary goal... or I won't. I've given myself permission to change the route I take to get there... but not the destination.

Otherwise, I'll set it lower and lower and lower until my goal reaches a number I've already hit. Where's the challenge in that? What good is a goal if you change it before you get there? Why participate in a writing challenge if there isn't a chance you'll fail?

I'm not saying that no one should re-evaluate their goals while they travel the path they're on. As has been pointed out countless times by countless authors, every writer is different. What works for one won't necessarily work for another. Sometimes life happens, particularly for those who have lives. People's lives change, so they have to look at how those changes affect their personal and professional goals. They have to make adjustments based on that.

What I'm saying is that I'm not those people. Giving myself permission to change my goal just feels like I'm saying it's okay to be lazy, that I can lower the goal later so I'll win. No. If I intend to "win" this round of ROW80, I need to work at it. In this instance, work means stop being lazy and WRITE.

The January 26 Check-In Blog Hop.