NaNoWriMo - ONE WEEK LATER

Are you sick of all the NaNoWriMo posts yet? I hope not, because it is what's occupying my mind at this moment. While I wouldn't say that I am bored of it, the excitement level certainly has cooled off compared to the 1st. I suppose more accurate feeling would be, it's okay to write few thousand words, but if I think about writing a lot, it seems like I am forcing myself, so I eased off on myself a little this weekend, because while I believe discipline is a good thing, I don't think it's a good idea to force myself to write 10K of crap, as oppose to 4K of decent stuff. This weekend I had an ambitious goal of writing 10K per day, but that didn't quite work out because I was in the middle of an excellent book, which I wanted to finish reading. And also, brain wasn't cooperating. However, it is now 22:58 on Sunday night, and I have a nice happy feeling of being productive yet relaxed, because even though I didn't write as much as I was thinking I should, I did manage a respectable 8223 words, and that brings my total word count to 32210. I hope to have the official NaNoWriMo of 50K done by next sunday. Then rest of the time will be finishing my goal of full first draft. What have I learned after the end of the week 1?

• Getting a head start is always a good thing. - In the beginning, excitement level is high. You are keen to run rather than walk. So run. Do as much as you can, and bank those words. My highest word count was on the very first day (8376 words), and I haven't gotten anywhere close to that word count after that. However, it did start me off on the right foot, and it's a great motivational factor.
• Having a plan is a good thing - I am sticking to writing in chronological order this time. If I truly wanted to, I could try writing out of sequence, because I do have an outline. But I have noticed that though I remain more or less true to my outline, some things do change or grow, and so I figure that if I stick to the sequence then I can incorporate those changes as I go. Also, as I come to some scenes which are difficult, I am forcing myself to work through them, because sooner or later I am going to have to deal with them so might as well do it now.
• Relaxing and enjoying other things is not against the law - this weekend I had hoped to just write. But you know what, in the end, I thought what the hell, I wanted to finish the book I was reading. So I did. It was great fun. And as much as I want to be a published writer and as much as I want to create my own stories, I don't want to push aside the love of books that get me started on this road in the first place.
• Failure is eventually useful - experimenting with different methods of writing is beneficial, because by figuring out what doesn't work for you, you are closer to finding what does work for you.