NaNoWriMo Fail

NaNoWriMo is slang for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place every November.

I decided to do NaNoWriMo in 2015 hoping it would motivate me to get a book out. It didn't. An infant and a toddler combined with a sleep deprived mother does not make for good writing.

My sole success for 2015 NaNo was a case of writer guilt piled on top of mommy guilt. Sure I wrote a little. I even made the daily word count target. Twice. In the first week.

Then I got sick. That bone tired with a heaping of chills kind of sick. As a stay-at-home mom, I don't get days off.

Just as easily and thoughtlessly as I had committed to NaNo, I chucked that commitment.

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​Ok, not as easily.

I tried three more times to get it done. Each attempt came with another round of stress induced sickness. Thankfully it all happened in a measly week and a half.

I still beat myself up about it. But here's the important thing:
The NaNo 2015 fail, had I been more aware at the time, could've saved me a trip to the doctor for postpartum anxiety in mid-December. 

Hindsight. 

At any time I generally have between 5 and 15 things that I want to be doing. The difference between now and then is that I am learning to limit myself to 1 a day. One thing to do outside of routine child and household chores is it for me. 

Best news, it's actually working. Feel my heartfelt sigh of relief through your screen!

Interested in learning how I arrived at this solution? Stay tuned. Over the next few weeks I'm going to walk you through it. Let's just say that some of it was completely a palm to forehead experience.