Two days until Halloween. The Pumpkin King had his first lollipop while trick or treating at the zoo last weekend. When I gave him another after nap yesterday, his eyes grew wide, and his joy went viral. He and the mischievous Loki are fired up for Halloween, and we can’t wait to go trick or treating with them.
Looking to November, I’m paring down my trackable goals to three.
Exercise for at least 20 minutes
Log Calories
Write fiction
In any given month, I track 5-7 habits daily. It builds habits and spurs progress. Although I reduced the number of goals, the difficulty level ratchets way up.
I’ve decided to take part in Nanowrimo for the first time in nearly a decade. In short, Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month, values volume over perfection. The win condition is to produce 50,000 words of a novel in the month. A few things. 50k words is a very ambitious number for 30 days. It also isn’t an entire novel. While the definition varies, most novels sit between 70k and 100k words.
My very ambitious goal is to churn out a very rough draft of a novel through November and December. “Win” Nanowrimo, and then carry on in December for at least another 25k words and a discernable end to the story I’d like to tell.
I’ll be sure to update word counts here weekly, and you can watch me sink or swim.
Otherwise, I plan to squeeze in at least 20 minutes of exercise daily and get back on the My Fitness Pal bandwagon. My general diet and exercise have definitely slipped the past two months, and any reasonable prospect of writing success will come hand in hand with the structure, routine, and energy that I get from regular exercise.
So there’s that. As long as the standard set in my parenting, partnering, and work can be maintained, everything else is flexible while I try to get this done.
It’s going to be... fun.
Currently reading: The Best of Me by David Sedaris, Several short sentences about writing, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Also am 20% through Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings. A book I didn’t intend to pick up but have gotten sucked in despite its frightening length. >1100 pages.
Shelved: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Project Hail Mary. I’ll be returning to both, but likely not until 2022.
Finished: Nothing. Again