by Alycia W. Morales     @AlyciaMorales

It’s halfway through the month of November, and some of us have gone hard at NaNoWriMo while others may feel like a fish out of water. (I just watched Finding Dory with my kids…) Life takes over, other jobs or projects take precedent, and we lose momentum. Or maybe just desire.

I don’t think so. Instead:

As Dory would say, just keep writing,writing, writing. Just keep going. No matter if you squeeze in 50 words or 5,000. Just keep writing.

Take a day to focus on writing. Go somewhere you know you won’t be interrupted or distracted. Set a time or word count goal, and stay offline so you can meet that goal.

Give yourself some grace. Don’t beat yourself up. That will only make you shut down, and that wouldn’t be good. You still have time to finish.

Even if you don’t finish on time, finish. Don’t give up. Set a goal beyond November 30, but keep moving toward it instead of retiring your keyboard.

If you do these three things, you are still going to be successful, even if it takes you longer than 30 days to write your novel.

What’s your current NaNo word count? [reminder]

Alycia W. Morales is an award-winning freelance editor and author. Her clients have won the Selah Award, BRMCWC Director’s Choice Award, and many others. Her writing has been published in Thriving Family magazine, Splickety Love, and several compilation books. She is a member of ACFW, the president of Cross n’ Pens critique group, and a BRMCWC Conference Assistant.

Alycia blogs at The Write Editing and Life. Inspired.

When she isn’t busy writing, editing, and reading, Alycia enjoys spending time with her husband and four children taking hikes in Upstate SC and NC, creating various crafts, coloring in adult coloring books, and watching TV.