Today is April 15th, so for Camp Nano, it’s halfway day, or to match things to the title of this post, we’re halfway there.
Of course, the nitpicker in me says that we’re not technically halfway through the month until after we’ve crossed midnight into the 16th in both April and November. Only Camp Nano in July, with 31 days, has a proper day in the middle (the 16th, since it has 15 days before it and 15 after). But by the end of today we should be halfway through the goal, so thinking about the 15th as the half point of the month isn’t such a bad idea.
When it came to my original goal of 10K I was on top of keeping pace. But after consideration and wanting to keep myself honest, I have upped my goal. I originally thought that meant I should up it to 20K, but I realized while writing this week that doing so might be too much.
I can always (or at least up to a point) up my goal again later, but I didn’t want to force myself to get wordy/add extraneous plot developments beyond what I’ve outlined. So I settled on 15K for now. That leaves me just under 10K to still fit in what I have planned.
Alas. Before changing the goal, I was slightly ahead, and now I’m more than 2K behind. Unfortunately I don’t see that changing much (if at all) today, as the day has been draining in a way I wouldn’t have expected. But at this point, there’s no point worrying about it. I’m going to relax and rest up tonight so I get a good night’s sleep tonight (though hopefully not with intense dreams so I can also get a good amount of rest while I’m at it). I think I should be back on track by the end of the weekend, but I’m stubborn enough to make sure I hit the goal by the end of the month no problem.
Last week I stated that this post would be a day late (on Thursday instead of Wednesday) on purpose. Why was that?
As has been noted in the past, April 15th is a special anniversary in my writing life. It’s the day I created what eventually became the series that I’ve worked on during almost every Nano project. And since just about everything I write is connected to it, once could say it was the genesis of my writing in the last 28 years.
Since the origins of these stories were weird and silly, I tend to watch comedic movies/shows to celebrate. This year I opted for some Rifftrax offerings that I hadn’t seen yet, and that helped to put me in a good mood when otherwise I’ve been tired and crabby.
It’s hard to know how much of my attitude of late has to do with pandemic fatigue, but I know that’s part of it. I get my second shot soon. While the worry is I’ll have an adverse reaction and be out of commission for a few days afterward, I remain positive. I’ll continue to write, and I’ll do my best to have social contact in a safe and responsible way (like a hike with writing peeps on Saturday). But I’ll make sure to engage in self-care as well. We all need to make sure we’re taking care of ourselves, now more than ever.
The tunnel may have ended up longer than we would have liked, but we’ll get to the end and return to the light. Don’t let the light be a train coming the other way looking to run you over. Or Biff Tannen charging at you while you flail on your hoverboard.