Camp NaNo - The eighth day decision!!

I want to share my beautiful NaNo target icon with you! Do you see, the arrow is almost pointing to the fifty percent mark? I've almost written 5,000 words on my novel in a week!
WOO HOO!

You know, as cool as that makes me feel and even though I'm super proud of myself to be reaching my word count goals, so far this victory seems...too easy.

The Camp Nano website is pretty cool because it gives you a lot of statistics on how you write every day: what is your daily average needed to meet your goals, and what you actually write on average every day. My average daily word count is around  530 words. 

That seems like a nice amount of words to write every day, and it takes me about 2 hours...maybe less... to accomplish that. Now, what if I continue writing 530 words a day?

That means I could reach 15,000 words at the end of April.

Hmm. That calculation made me stop and think for a while. As I drank another cup of morning coffee, I thought about why I joined Camp Nanowrimo in the first place:  so I could re-focus my writing efforts and put some nice work into my novel. 

And you know what I loved about November NaNo? The pressure. 

No I'm serious!

The whole month felt big and scary, with a huge overwhelming goal ahead of me that I've never faced before. And writing every day became massively important to me. I needed to reach that goal, for myself. Once I won, I felt such an amazing accomplishment and I NEVER want to lose that feeling. 

Now I'm haunted with thoughts like, could reaching my word count so soon be...demotivating? Would I actually stop writing on my novel once I won with 10k? Even if camp wasn't over yet?

Something twisted in my stomach as I thought about these things. I don't wanna stop writing. I want to take myself as far as I can, in the time I have. Everyone has busy lives, and mine is no excuse. My cabin mates and writing buddies are all trying their best...maybe I should push myself harder too?

So I made the decision!

*** Today I increased my Camp NaNo wordcount to 15,000 words ***

As proof, here is my new little bulls eye. He looks smaller, but honestly this image makes me feel amazing! Already I feel more motivation to keep writing, to reach farther for myself. 

Already I've done a lot of extra work to Chapters 1-9 of my book. This is considered to be "Act 1", where characters discover the plot situation and are pushed into the new world. I've overcome so many obstacles already: figuring out which points of view to use, how many chapters to write, and even what parts to RIP OUT of the book. 

And because of everything I've done and of how far I've come, I'm happier with my novel than ever before. I seriously feel amazing right now! Bring on the coffee and let's write!!!!