So Camp NaNo ended up being a mild disappointmen, but after my wrists went south, I had to be more realistic about what I was willing to push myself to do.
The Original Goal
The Original goal was to do 50,000 words in 31 days. Ambitious, but doable given how I do NaNo on the regluar and normally come out winning. I actually had the advantage of having the extra day to write words, and I was on work restrictions for the first two weeks of July, only being allowed to work 40 hours, and there was also the extended weekend due to the 4th of July holiday.
What Happened
There were several obstacles though that caused me to reduce my goal to 20,000 words for the month, and even that win was an 11th hour win.
Firstly, I was not anticipating how long home exercises for Physical Therapy would take. There were days where my Physical Therapist had to tell me to rest because something I did at work set me back a week, or it had agitated my condition. I still have to remember to budget at least an hour for streches, and it’s hard to remember that some times. Getting into a routine takes time, and eventually, I’ll get there.
On that note, Physical Therapy sessions require time. Taking an hour out of any schedule is rough. Given I normally allot about three hours so that I can divide that time between writing and chatting on Discord, reducing the amount of writing time I had put substantially more pressure on me to produce, and sometimes, I struggle to produce word counts under pressure.
Secondly, there were days when I was genuinely in pain, and the last thing you do in those situations is ignore your body. I now have a Voltaren and Lidocane gel that is my friend, and I am grateful to my Physical Therapist suggesting I mix these two together.
I also have myself to blame. I discovered a new YouTube channel, but it’s hard to just have it playing in the background, because deals with a lot of legal stuff. Given how out of my league law tends to be, it’s easier for me to watch a break down of a legal motion, than it is to just listen to it, unless the text of the legal document is being read, then explained.
Additionally, I have officially kicked off my efforts to get re-aquainted with Microsoft office, since I will need it if I ever have intentions of escaping Factory life. And if anyone needs a recommendation, I highly recommend Miss Excel. LinkedIn Learning does have Microsoft learning content, but Miss Exel has all of her training centralized. It’s less of a wild west because all the Outlook stuff is in one training series. All of the OneNote stuff is in one series. All of the Word and Powerpoint stuff is contained in their respective training courses. Mostly, I am excited to dive into Excel, since I probably haven’t had to have a deep dive knoweldge of Excel since I took a course in Microsoft Office for a Semester.
At the End of the Month
At the end of it all, though, I worked hard on keeping a positive outlook on in all. It’s really easy to sometimes allow disappointments to get overwhelming, and pull you down. However, I decided to turn my disappointment to an opportunity to figure out how to make things easier for myself and my health. I’m better for it, and going into the main NaNoWriMo event, I feel better prepared to handle whatever happens.
Allyson Writes 