For my #NaNoWriMo commitment, I’ve been making an effort to write/edit something for my novel manuscript every day. Here’s how it’s going:

It’s not hard to spend time writing, per se. It’s more difficult to figure out what gets sacrificed to have the time to write.

Before November, I would usually focus on writing on the weekends. I’m in school, and weekends are the days I have the most time to write, so I would save that time to focus on writing. But this month, I’m committed to writing every day. Accordingly, each day I have to choose what to spend less time on for the sake of my manuscript. Everything still gets done (mostly), but it’s been beneficial to shift my priorities toward writing. I like this commitment.

Except for this one day I forgot.

Okay, this one day I forgot to work on my novel. But I was writing something else, so it still kind of counts, right?

It helps me keep believing in my manuscript.

There are some days when I really love my novel, and there are some days when doubts about my manuscript start to creep in. The really beneficial thing about working on my novel every day is that it forces me to spend time with it, to believe in it. If there’s something I don’t like, I fix it. This has definitely been the biggest benefit from writing every day. I’m constantly sitting with my novel and making it better.

How’s #NaNoWriMo going so far for you?