In the month of November, I participated in NaNoWriMo, the mammoth task of writing 50,000 words for novel in just 30 days. I was up for the challenge. 

I had started to write a novel in my early 20s but only got a few chapters, some 20 odd pages completed. NaNoWriMo gave me the excuse to start again, start fresh with a new idea and just let the words emanate. It was pretty liberating, not having to worry too much about editing, just smashing out the words and ideas began to flow in the fast pace fashion of speed novel long.

I was pretty much keeping pace until about 10 days in my shoulder and arm started to feel sore. It was all the extra typing I was doing -- my body couldn't cope. For the next 3 days, I struggled with the pain, trying to keep the story alive but alas I knew if I continued, I was at risk of doing myself a permanent injury. I actually still living the pain at present.

So, what does it mean for my 40% complete novel ? Does this mean Mitch will never to get to save Candy from Skelon Myers and the evil Dr Mandrel ?

No. I hope not.

Just like crafting a statue, I plan to just chip away at the story when I can. I've even investigated trying out speech applications such as Dragon Dictate, but this requires you to be in a quiet room with no one around. I've been doing the majority of my writing whilst listening to drum and bass mixes and on public transport, so speech software wasn't the answer to allow me to continue NaNoWriMo, but will hopefully allow me to continue building the story.