NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, takes place every November. Thousands of writers hunker over keyboards as peer pressure oozes, trying to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I’ve done this for three years now…

And for the first time, I struggled.

I now understand how people with too much on their plate simply can’t get any writing done. (Now, that means you must take ownership of that and either clear your plate a bit, or settle for not writing much during that point of your life.)

But now, I understand. November 2012 was chaotic for me, to say the least. Things at my day job were so overwhelming, that when I had time to write, I couldnt turn my mind off of work in order to let the fiction flow.

I apologize for the silent judgements I’ve had over the past few years when this came so simply for me.

In past years, my writing habits were as such:

But this past year, it was different:

I could barely keep up. Thankfully, I work well under deadline pressure, and the thought of not finishing by only a few thousand words drove me in that last sprint towards 50,000.

A few days after November ended, I opened the word document and my stomach recoiled. I shut the document. The experience wasn’t as thrilling or enjoyable as it had been in past years. In fact, I felt a bit scarred by it.

So it is only now, months later, that I feel I can open up about my near failure. I underestimated life. I underestimated the added stress to an already stressful time.

That said… I’ll certainly be doing NaNoWriMo again. 😉

Has there ever been an event that caught you off guard and humbled you? How did you react? Did you approach the event differently the next time? Please share! 

Much love,

the still-frazzled NaNoWriMo-er.