For the last few years that I’ve done Nano, I’ve taken almost the entire month off of work. The first year that I attempted to do this writing challenge while still working full time – I felt like I was going batty. It doesn’t help that I normally work a ton of overtime, and I’m the sort of person to bring my work home with me either. Needless to say I wasn’t able to complete my 50k, and as such was unable to cross the finish line.

So after that experience, I decided that if I was going to make a fair shot of it, I would need to focus myself almost entirely on writing, and I would need to find a way to block out all of the other distractions that life creates.

My solution was taking my vacation in November. I’m lucky to have the option of doing this – I know many really couldn’t indulge in this luxury from year to year. Either they don’t have a month of vacation time, or they don’t have an employer who is as understanding as mine.

The time off has worked well for me the last two years – I’ve been able to figure out what I need to do in order to get the words down, and each part of my story written. I might just be working on drafts – but the amount of words that I’ve gotten down during the last three years of committing to NaNo has been more then I ever would have been able to do if left to my own devices.

There used to be a time when writing was the most important thing to me, and I could focus on it almost entirely, but times and my own personal situation have changed, making it harder and harder to find the time or the inspiration to slowly pick at a story during an hour or two over the weekend or in the evening. I feel like I save up all of my writing stamina for November now – so much so that this year the words seem to be coming out easier then they have in quite some time. I don’t feel like I’m struggling to find the right thing to say as much as I have in the past – of course this is likely a temporary situation. As we all know, the words slow eventually as you come across your first hump or a part where you are trying to figure out what is going on.

I hope that hump is a long way off – I’m really enjoying myself this year. I love getting up early, and sitting down with my shake to get the words out on paper. (Or the computer as the case may be). I love watching the sun slowly come up through my office windows, and even being able to spend more time at home with my other half – who programs video games out of his home office.

I realize that I’m rambling slightly, but I think the point I want to make is that while some wouldn’t consider taking a month off to write in a personal competition relaxing – it’s about more than that to me. It’s about getting back to my own roots – without the stress of a job that I live and breath the rest of the year. Its not about going away and sitting on a beach (which I would love to do at some point) or goofing off, it’s me taking a month to do what I would love to spend my time doing more often, and being serious enough about to to treat it LIKE a job for the month.