take note phrase
MacMillan Thesaurus
to notice something and try to remember it because you think it is important
The first week of NaNoWriMo is nearly over. I’m actually keeping a good pace despite restarting my project three days in with something else that had kept my attention more easily. I will eventually get that story written, but I’m not stupid enough to challenge the universe when things don’t line up for me to complete it without it feeling forced.
So I decided to sit back and take note of what was going on. I enjoyed the story, but I needed to do more research, and while that is kind of my jam, doing it on the fly for NaNoWriMo just was too stressful. So that got put on the mental Post-It note. I thought about pulling out the outline for a fantasy novel that I’d outlined a long time ago (12 years at this point!) but decided against it as well.
I’ve “won” NaNoWriMo once before and at this point, I know that it will strip my heart and soul out if I push through the stress. Boundaries aren’t just for external relationships, they’re for our internal self as well. We need to draw hard and fast lines that we won’t cross for our own well being.
So I’m taking note of my own mental and physical well being and respecting my own boundaries.
Aw, I’m sorry that it’s not working out for you this year.
NaNo is a very, VERY particular style of writing at a generally stressful time of year for a lot of people. It requires a lot of things to line up correctly to be an effective tool. I’m lucky that I’ve got this year’s story on lock; it’s going very well and I’m delighted by my progress. But if I wasn’t as familiar as I was with the concept, if I wasn’t writing in a very specific style, and if I needed to maintain the input-output research-write cycle the way I have for other projects, I would really be struggling.
Good luck with the project now that it’s at your own pace!
I’m actually caught up on NaNo word count with this one so far. The first one became like pulling nails, and I noped out of that until later. Maybe next year’s NaNo. 😁