Remember rewards (& backing up)

Two important points.

Remember to reward yourself. If you've hit a milestones, go out and buy yourself the reward you promised yourself. If you didn't set any rewards, or you're one of the newbies that joined at the last minute (or after the last minute), then set youself some now. It might be hitting 11669 by the end of Day 7 (that's where you should be if you've been writing 1667 per day), or whatever target you think is both reasonable and challenging.

For the record, if I can hit 15K by Friday night, I'll be buying my first reward on Saturday. I'm thinking of taking a hour to myself to browse a second hand bookshop and find something bizarre and delightful - the sort of thing you can't get in a mainstream bookshop. That means I need to keep slogging away. If it seems I'm going wild wioth the word count just now, remember I am front loading like a fiend - Junior Exams are coming up at the end of this week and that may knock me out for a night or two, and then in Week Two I'll have a night off when I have to attend Honours Awards for the seniors. So I'm trying to insulate myself against those imminent calamities.

The other important thing is remember to back up your writing! If you don't you're almost sure to suffer some miserable disaster which results in you losing everything you've writen. And that is the WORST THING in the ENTIRE WORLD. So back up. I simply email my novel to my hotmail acocunt. That way. it is safe in cyberspace if something happens to this computer.

Third thing (Yeah, I know, I only said two things - but I lied) - can you update me on your word count and your morale? Rate morale on the following scale:

1 - I'm taking up residence in the Nanowrimo Ate My Soul Forum
2 - I'm suffering, but I'm ploughing on.
3 - I'm doing okay, I guess. I'm not exactly enjoying this, but I'm still doing it.
4 - I'm doing good.
5 - I post joyous messages in the This is Going Better Than Expected Forum.

For the record, I'm probably a 3 or perhaps even a 4. So far, things are going really well. I'm hurting, physically, with flu and tiredness, and so on, but I'm enjoying the writing. I don't know what I'm writing about - I literally have to cast my mind back and screw up my forehead to remember what is happening in the story - but it is flowing easily enough, and it also makes some sort sense. You can not ask for any more than that during Nano.

Also can you see any major obstacles coming up or things that are worrying you?