The WDC NanoLounge

*hugs*

Shadowpup, I understand the desire to compete but the truth is it's not about who else does what. It's about whether or not you work on the novel. The spirit of nanowrimo isn't "let's see who can write the fastest". It is about taking all of us who talk about writing our novels and getting us to put action to our words. Even if you don't make 50k this month, you will have gotten further than you were before it started. The sprints and little "who can be on the top of the list" challenges are meant to just be in fun but not the focus of the event. Don't let it bring you down, and I promised from the few days we've had so far, you're not the only one who has done less than 500 words a sprint. But each time you sprint, just remember that it's 200, 300, 400, or whatever count you get more words than you had before it happened and it's a story you didn't have written before the month started.

50k isn't the end all be all. The first novel I plan to submit to agents was a nanowrimo novel back in 2007 and you wanna know something funny about that. Even though I write 125k last year, and 50k on other years, it's the 2007 failed attempt that will become a prepared novel to send out. Back then I only managed to get 14,000 words for the entire month. The novel was only 23,000 words when I finished that first draft making it barely even a novella.

You never know when you're knee deep in a first draft what will happen in the future. Keep on trying and remember, if you did some writing then you're doing great because you took that first leap into the unknown. You accomplished something and that's pretty great too.