2nd week NaNoWriMo update: The hangover week

Short-ish post because NaNo is killing me, but I wanted to get some numbers and thoughts down in the 2nd week.

I've only won NaNo once before--last year, in 2021--and I remember the excitement rounding out the first week at something like 13,000 words. Above par! I thought my word count would continue to lift away from the daily minimum and I'd have more and more leeway as the month continued...but that's not how it went.

Last year I was really busy in the first week. I started NaNo with my in-laws visiting, and ended the first week at World Fantasy Convention in Montreal with a 3 month old baby who wouldn't sleep. I went to the con expecting not to write, but between panels Mike (that's my little brother, might as well introduce him properly here!) and I hopped on our laptops using his phone wi-fi and sprinted a reasonable count.

Then the second week was tough.

That's my graph from last year. Pretty inconsistent! I'd have a better screen grab but I'm suuuper smart and deleted the goal shortly after I won LOL. Don't be me--don't do that. The above screen shot was taken on my phone at some point before I deleted it to show off the big day in the middle of the month...a big day I needed to get back on track after the bad second week!

Today, on Nov 9, for TTN, I have this:

Pretty good!

But the graph looks like this...

Yeah...

Uh oh.

Much more consistent in the 1st week. Still a bit wavy but less variation than 2021. But that dive is looking familiar. Par for today is 15,000 and I'm still planning to write, so I'm not far behind and I hope today's count won't be 0. But ughhhh I am already TIRED. And yesterday the hand cramps started...which is what I will blame for the sub-500 word count, but which was only a small contributing factor...

Why is the second week always the worst? I ask but I guess it's pretty obvious. The first week is exciting and we can push ourselves too hard. The second week is the hangover from all that work and fun!

I hope I can turn it around today but if not, look for me doing a 5,000+ word day around Nov 15/16 to make up for it LOL.