NaNoWriMo Day 10: NaNo Knows How Reward Systems Work.

So....It's November 10th.

Accordign to NaNo's "official" word count goal I should be at 16,667 words by now and I am no where near that. Which, at first thought can be discouraging, overwhelming, and demotivating.

It's made slightly better by the fact that I'm not the furthest behind at this point and there are several people with word counts within a thousand of my own. Although, there are people who have already exceeded the 50,000 word mark (which, how? Do those people eat/sleep/work? Or do they somehow survive off of writing alone?)

Plus, there's still 20 days left to reach the overall goal.

But, there's only 20 days left.

Help.

Looking at my word count every day is both exciting and discouraging. I feel proud of myself for producing this much in ten days, but also disappointed for not being where I (according to the very loose guidelines) should be. I want to squeal for joy and scream in frustration.

Not to focus on the negatives, there are several things I am happy with.

The first was crossing the 5,000 word mark the other day. The second was finishing my first chapter! That first chapter was a pain in the butt for the first half. But I finished it, I'm in my second chapter, and I'm able to move forward much more smoothly now. And I can see my first major plot point coming up very soon.

Additionally, I also have written and updated my word count ten days in a row now. There were points today where I really wasn't sure that was going to happen because I just didn't feel like writing for most of the day. But I did it. And I have to confess, there's a little secret as to why I was able to.

NaNoWriMo's writing badges.

See, the NaNo website has these little milestone badges you can earn as the month goes on.

Some of these badges are trivial. Those "Participation Badges" include things like setting up your profile, posting in the forums, etc. But those orange "Writing Badges" feel amazing to earn. Not only do you get them for creating your novel and the first time you update your word count, but there are badges for word count goals and for updating your count multiple days in a row.

I earned that 10-Day Streak badge today.

It might sound silly to get excited over earning a digital badge, but this is a fantastic reward system. These badges show me specific goals I can work towards and gosh darn it, they feel good to reach.

I may be behind, but I have that writing streak to be proud of and to show off. I have word count milestones to be proud of.

Even if I can't "win" NaNo this year (though I'm going to give it my best shot), I can be happy for these little achievements and for beginning to develop good writing habits.

Word Count: 7,859