It was hard going back to work after five, lit-event-filled days off.

On Sunday, last week, I attended the launch of Rosanna Micelotta Battigelli’s historical fiction, La Brigantessa, which was published by Inanna Publications. It took place at the Caruso Club, Sudbury’s Italian cultural hub. There was as much history lesson as reading, and thanks to the various groups who had supported Rosanna in her journey.

And, of course, there was awesome food 🙂

Since that event took up most of the afternoon, and I also published my next chapter/NaNoWriMo week 1 update, I only managed 931 words that day.

It was back to work, Monday through Thursday, and with supper, dog duty, and other personal and household responsibilities, I wrote 831, 510, 558, and 534 words respectively.

My initial plan had been to write between 3,000 and 3,500 words per day on my days off, leaving me with the reasonable amount of between 250 and 500 words per work day. But I hadn’t accounted for Wordstock Sudbury and the book launch, getting the car serviced, an evening out with a friend (even though I knew they were all things I’d sacrifice NaNo production for).

Sometimes, we’re too blindly hopeful for our own good…

Friday and Saturday, I managed 2,071 and 2,102 words respectively. I haven’t been able to ramp up to my goal number. There’s a possibility I could get there by the end of the month, but, in the meantime, that leaves me short. I’ve broken 10k and as of the end of day yesterday, my work count was at 11,275, but that’s almost 5, 500 words short of where I should be (considering an equal division of 50k words over 30 days, or 1,667 words per day).

I’m going to try to up my word count during the week and see where that leads, but at this stage, I’m thinking that a NaNo “win” in 2018 is going to be a long shot.

I do have my outline, though, which has meant the world of difference in the drafting. Though I’ve already diverged (I always do—ALWAYS), I’m only about a thousand words behind where I was this time last year, when I had the entire month of November off. Don’t forget, I also had new puppy to contend with and did not manage a NaNo “win” in 2017.

I did manage a NaNo “win” in 2016, while working, so there’s still hope, though it might be slim.

Winter has settled in up here in northeastern Ontario. We had a single day of snow in October, and it melted almost immediately. As of Thursday, there was still green grass on most lawns. The lilac leaves hadn’t fallen (they now have—most are green).

There was a light dusting of snow on Thursday night and the snow continued through the day on Friday. 10-15 centimetres (4-6 inches) fell by Saturday morning and Phil shovelled both Friday night and Saturday morning as he had a team building event to attend. There has been a dusting of snow again Saturday and Sunday (so far), to reinforce the initial fall and the temperatures will not reach much above the melting point for the next week.

So that’s this week’s NaNo update. I’ll check in with you again, next Sunday.

Until then, be well, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories!