I hit the 25k halfway milestone for NaNoWriMo last night and it feels great.
What feels even better is that I hired an editor and have a due date for my manuscript!
I have ADHD and wasn’t diagnosed until I was an adult, and it took a lot of therapy to get to the point where I could straight up say “I work best with deadlines.”
This had been obvious with things I had to do, such as work stuff (meeting will be at xx on xx), and house stuff (trash goes out on xx). I have an elaborate and practiced set of supports such as alarms, several planners and calendar markers to ensure these happen on time.
But it was less obvious to me when it came to my writing.
I wrote a whole book once (which no one will read because of growth reasons), but only because my degree hinged on it. And events like NaNoWriMo always seemed to lose my attention part way through.
But you know what actually works? Money and a real person who I’ve paid to expect something from me.
I got a taste of this the past couple of through hiring Whitney Hill as my writing coach. She’s worked with me on actually honing my writing practices and focusing on authorship, not just words on pages. Having someone who holds me accountable, and understands what I need as a writer has been invaluavble.
Giving myself the time and money to invest in my own aspirations as a writer has been so empowering. It reminds me that this practice is worth the time and effort I want to put into it.
Next major hurdle is finishing nano (I have a word count goal for the whole manuscript now which is fantastic), doing a major clean up of my word vomit, then sending my manuscript to my beta readers.
I hope whatever writing endeavors you’re working on are going well, or if you’re stuck you find ways to wiggle free.
Love, Jes