I haven't done much in writing, updating my blogs or anything along those lines for the last couple of months.

Mainly this has been due to real world events completely taking over my life - we've decided to move house. 

House move aside I've been looking for a reason to get back into the groove of writing and what better reason can their be than the annual National Novel Writing Month challenge.

That's right 50,000 words in 30 days.  Or roughly 1,666 words per day for the whole month of November.

So how am I doing? Well I'm not where I wanted to be on day 2 but I'm not doing badly either.

I got off to a great start and managed just under 500 words just after midnight on 1 November. However, I only managed about another 400 throughout the whole of Sunday. There's always a lot going on at home and between the kids homework, re-plumbing the waste from the bath and going our for lunch there wasn't really much time for writing. 

Day 1: 868 words.

That's 798 words short of the daily total. Not a great start when it pays to try and get ahead early on. Going behind so early means you are in a position of playing catch up from the outset. You're putting pressure on yourself from the word go.

This isn't my first NaNoWriMo, it's actually my fourth, and so I'm experienced enough now to know not to panic.  There's plenty of time and I'm a dab hand at pacing myself across the month and hitting my target with a day or two to spare.

This morning was a new day and I'm back at work. Armed with my laptop and and just under an hour on the train it was time to get back into the groove.

At Cannon Street station I checked my word count before saving the doc and closing the laptop; 1966 words. That's 1096 words written on the train. A big boost to my word count indeed. But I'm aware that's really only 300 words out of today's word count.  Another big total on the way home and I can expect to be closer to 3000 words. If I get a chance I may write a little at lunch and when I get home tonight. 

3333 words is today's total target. I think I'll get there but time will tell. Even if I don't 2000 words a day will put me back on track before the end of the week and see me finish well before the end of the month.

Wish me luck.

Phil