November 1, 2:26am

i just got home from my halloween celebrations and i sat down and wrote 932 words like it was nothing. when i wake up tomorrow i'll have more time to write since it'll still be the first. everyone else started their writing at midnight, so i did, too. it'll be way past halloween when this is publisbed, but still, happy halloween guys.

5:34am

just kidding i completely scrapped my other idea and now i have one i rlly enjoy and am excited about so as of right now i only have 707 words BUT!!!! that means that just in these few hours i've nearly met the daily goal of 1,667 words per day so i'm feeling pretty confident (even though those 932 other words don't count anymore) nice

5:05pm

in one writing session i wrote 2 pages (573 words). this took me about an hour and 20 minutes. to meet my goal today i need to write another 387 words, which for me is about a page and a half. by the way, i am handwriting this entire project.

9:29pm

i took a lil break and then surpassed my goal! it made me feel very happy and accomplished! at midnight i'll probably write another couple hundred words or so to get even more ahead.

DAY ONE COMPLETE
GOAL: 1,667
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,797
TOTAL: 1,797

November 2, 3:08pm

woke up around noon and immediately started writing, wrote more than i aimed for in this one session and reached 940, now i only have 596 words left for today. i also reached chapter two!

7:10pm

i'm at 3,408 words, meaning i'm good for today, which is lucky because i'm really exhausted. i'm hoping to write more before midnight, but who knows how i'll feel.

DAY TWO COMPLETE
GOAL: 3,333
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,611
TOTAL: 3,408

November 3, 11:44pm

i feel amazing. today i wrote 2,303 words, meaning that i'm ahead by nearly a thousand. this is better than any feeling.

DAY THREE COMPLETE
GOAL: 5,000
WORDS WRITTEN: 2,303
TOTAL: 5,711

November 4

i can't believe i'm so ahead this is easy???? why is this so easy
ig it's only day 4 but like this is really fucking easy i'm so proud of myself

DAY FOUR COMPLETE
GOAL: 6,667
WORDS WRITTEN: 2,298
TOTAL: 8,009

November 5, 9:53pm

started my period, wasted time in the morning, had some anxiety, wrote 564 words. good thing i'm still ahead!!

DAY FIVE COMPLETE
GOAL: 8,333
WORDS WRITTEN: 564
TOTAL: 8,573

November 6, 11:51pm

i worked for 8 hours today and when i got home and began writing i totally fucked up and counted yesterday's words as today's and so i thought i had more but like 5 words behind is not even bad so i'm fine

DAY SIX COMPLETE
GOAL: 10,000
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,422
TOTAL: 9,995

DAY SEVEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 11,667
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,045
TOTAL: 11,040

November 8, 8:02am

yesterday i churned out a little over a thousand words, then went and saw doctor strange with my boyfriend, and i stayed out until 5am with him. but right when i got home i wrote for 3 hours and made the 1,644/2,329 words i was missing. just 685 left for today and i'll probably surpass that. i hate being behind, it gives me anxiety. now it's fuckin bedtime for lana

DAY EIGHT COMPLETE
GOAL: 13,955
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,374
TOTAL: 12,414

November 9

i got behind bc i scrapped and rewrote a whole scene and it set me back DON'T DO THAT GUYS but i made up for it and i'm rlly proud of myself because my writing stamina is growing and growing i feel so alive

DAY NINE COMPLETE
GOAL: 15,000
WORDS WRITTEN: 3,022
TOTAL: 15,436

DAY TEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 16,667
WORDS WRITTEN: 291
TOTAL: 15,727

November 11

today was rlly rough. i had to make up for writing next to nothing yesterday. i have my reasons but i don't think anybody needs or wants to hear my excuses, but i needed the break. i was laying on the floor yelling to my mom about how i didn't want to write anything at all, and she kept telling me, "it's okay, you don't have to, it takes normal people months and years to write novels." and i started babbling about how on november 30th i was going to have a finished rough draft of my novel and nobody could stop me but me. i continued to write furiously straight up until midnight, and now i feel extremely proud. i am in lots of physical pain but it was all worth it. if you are reading this and currently writing a novel, see this as your kick in the ass to continue. you will never have a novel in your hands unless you write yourself a novel. please don't give up.

DAY ELEVEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 18,333
WORDS WRITTEN: 2,833
TOTAL: 18,560

November 12

my brain hurts, was bribing myself to write with episodes of true blood ugh

DAY TWELVE COMPLETE
GOAL: 20,000
WORDS WRITREN: 1,118
TOTAL: 19,718

November 13

my mom had to use her Mom Voice on me; "close that book. what have you eaten today? go eat something." this is the price we authors pay, MOTHER

also i cut myself on scissors trying to get another pen out of my bag (bc i've already gone through two whole pens in 13 days) so i had a bandaid on my index finger and it made it harder to grip the pen BUT I STILL DID IT NO EXCUSES i'm going insane

i already have a new idea that's punching me in the head rn i wanna write it so bad but NOT UNTIL MY LESBIANS HAVE SUCCESSFULLY FALLEN FOR EACH OTHER

DAY THIRTEEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 21,667
WORDS WRITTEN: 2,025
TOTAL: 21,743

DAY FOURTEEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 23,333
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,289
TOTAL: 23,032

November 15

i am really bad at math. i didn't count right on the day that i was so looking forward to: The Halfway Point, Twenty-Five Thousand Words. i thought i only had to write 1700 but i actually had to write 1900 and i came out short. tomorrow i have to write 1800 in order to make it up. i really really wanted to be at 25k or more by midnight but i just. i just didn't make it happen. yeah, i'm only behind by about 200 words, i'm being a baby, but ugh. i feel very deflated. i have to keep reminding myself that hey, i wrote seven pages today, i haven't quit, and i will make it up tomorrow.

DAY FIFTEEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 25,000
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,764
TOTAL: 24,796

November 16

i am very very proud of myself today, i finished my chapter as soon as midnight struck

okay so it was 11:30 and i wanted to get in as many words as possible before midnight and then my grandpa called and was like "take me to the store lol" so we all rushed around and got in the car and i wrote a ton in there which made me sick and then when i was done i had to count it all up which made me sicker and then i got really really excited bc i only have to write 1100 words tomorrow and then my head started to pound as i gushed to my family about how excited i was that now i get to build up the relationship between leslie and jenny and before i knew it i was having a panic attack i was overwhelmed and overstimulated oh god

DAY SIXTEEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 26,667
WORDS WRITTEN: 2,390
TOTAL: 27,186

DAY SEVENTEEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 28,333
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,400
TOTAL: 28,586

DAY EIGHTEEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 30,000
WORDS WRITTEN: 689
TOTAL: 29,275

DAY NINETEEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 31,667
WORDS WRITTEN: 2,489
TOTAL: 31,764

November 20

tomorrow i'm going to be out all day and probably all night so i have to write more tonight to make up for it aaaaaaa

DAY TWENTY COMPLETE
GOAL: 33,333
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,979
TOTAL: 33,743

DAY TWENTY-ONE COMPLETE
GOAL: 35,000
WORDS WRITTEN: 154
TOTAL: 33,897

DAY TWENTY-TWO COMPLETE
GOAL: 36,667
WORDS WRITTEN: 2,854
TOTAL: 36,751

DAY TWENTY-THREE COMPLETE
GOAL: 38,333
WORDS WRITTEN: 487
TOTAL: 37,238

DAY TWENTY-FOUR COMPLETE
GOAL: 40,000
WORDS WRITTEN: 2,025
TOTAL: 39,263

November 25

today i woke up at 6pm after having 11 hours of sleep and then i wrote all the way up until midnight it was great now i'm gonna read until bed yay

DAY TWENTY-FIVE COMPLETE
GOAL: 41,667
WORDS WRITTEN: 2,995
TOTAL: 42,258

November 26

i haven't seen proper daylight in a few days, only the sunset when i wake up, and the sunrise when i go to sleep. it's not doing my mental health any good and i've felt as though i'm in some sort of strange, dark, writing purgatory or something. but i am ahead, and there's three days left.

DAY TWENTY-SIX COMPLETE
GOAL: 43,333
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,766
TOTAL: 44,024

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN COMPLETE
GOAL: 45,000
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,120
TOTAL: 45,144

November 28, 6:06pm

i am just brimming with self-hatred tonight lol i want to close this notebook and literally throw it in the fucking trash i hate the story i hate myself for writing such a cliche pile of shit i know nothing of the world i am unfit

11:19pm

everything is okay now i had some coffee talked to my fam and now i'm good. if u get like that pls step away for an hour or two and come back when you are mentally ready to handle yourself.

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT COMPLETE
GOAL: 46,667
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,525
TOTAL: 46,669

November 29, 10:41am

I JUST ENDED MY NOVEL WITH ONE SENTENCE IT'S OVER NOW ALL THAT'S LEFT IS TO WRITE THE EPILOGUE TO WIN NANOWRIMO I FEEL EVERYTHING I HAVE NOT BEEN TO SLEEP YET I WROTE 2 DAYS OF WORK IN ONE SINGLE WAKE-PERIOD I AM DEAD

DAY TWENTY-NINE COMPLETE
GOAL: 48,333
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,730
TOTAL: 48,399

NANOWRIMO COMPLETE
GOAL: 50,000
WORDS WRITTEN: 1,603
TOTAL: 50,002

NaNoWriMo Reflection, December 1, 4:40am

Hi, my name's Lana, I am seventeen years old, and I just wrote the rough draft of my very first novel in thirty days. I wrote it all by hand, in blue ink, highlighting in pink. I went through five entire Pilot Precise V5 RT pens and finished off with a sixth. I wrote, I slept, I wrote, and oftentimes forgot to eat. It was very rough at times. And this whole month I've been regulating to a new type of medication, which made things a little worse. But you know what? This was surprisingly damn easy. And now that I know it's possible for me to have a whole rough draft of a novel in just one month, I'm gonna be popping out novels like a Mormon popping out kids. I've already got 3 different ideas. I would definitely recommend this to any writer who just can't seem to sit down and actually write.

Thank you, NaNoWriMo!!