Day 22 of NaNoWrimo: 40k+
I can not find the words for how happy I am that I started this project. I get lost in epic descriptions, waste time on getting new ideas where the plot and some minor sub plots should go, but it is just so glad that I get to explore my prose writing abilities. They are not the highest, as of now. But I know that I can trust my inner instincts of what might be bad for future writing projects. And that I can trust my insecurity about some things as an indicator on what I should work on. Running through this process is, not least, a great help in not stopping to think too much and work myself up over all these aspects the "inner editor" or "inner critic" (as NaNoWriMo-ers are referring to those insecurities), and just keep on writing.
One good example to mention would be: I sent my main character and two of her friend on a journey with a pirate ship in a post-apocalyptic future. Now, I don't know anything about sea navigation and steering a ship (well, at least for big ships), so I took what I knew, and just sort of drafted the rest around it, to get to the really important point, where the main character had to sort out important trust problems with another character. Knowing that I could find out about this stuff afterwards, and tat I could just take what I needed, to research and add the correct details someday maybe at a later time in the project, gave me the drive to get over the self criticism. Criticism is important, but it should never get beyond the point where i stops or hinders you in doing good/important things. Not being to hard on myself there, is a good experience, that I hope I can take with me beyond NaNoWriMo time.
I got past 40k word count-wise. In other words: 80 percent of the project is complete. I can only state again, what I said earlier. Stopping now would be insane.