I was looking at some stuff from last year’s NaNoWriMo. Specifically the fact that I reached 50k on day 7. A little voice in the back of my brain suddenly suggested that it might be a nice idea to shoot for 50k on day 6 this year. I probably won’t  actually try it, but it certainly shows I still have a long way to go if I’m to prepare myself to write less this year.

I’ve found, once again, the one good thing about fever. Granted I’d rather be typing at my normal 50 wpm, rather than some 5 to 10 wpm right now, but there is a benefit. Even though I haven’t been particularly active, physically, and have eaten at least as much as I usually would, my weight is actually going down a little.

Though I’ve been trying to get my weight down again right now I’d rather be able to function mentally.  Quite frankly I like staring at the end of the last sentence I wrote, wondering what I was going to write next, even less than I like my current weight.  Maybe I should just go to bed for a while, it’s still only early in the afternoon, but I can’t keep my bloody eyes open or in focus anyway.

More Peggy Lee quotes, more fever. I’m currently writing this on the trailing edge of a block of what I’ve dubbed “useful time”. That is to say a block of time in which I’ve actually been able to focus on something with an acceptable result.  Right now I’m managing occasional 30 to 45 minute blocks of this, and spending the rest of the time watching TV or reading. Or trying to blog.

The latter activity (blogging) is currently progressing at about 1 sentence every 5 minutes or so. Currently I’m hoping the afternoon will yield some bigger blocks of useful time. There are a couple of things I should do, but I don’t fancy tackling any of them inside of a 30 minute window.

I’m quoting Peggy Lee in the title of this post. That can only mean one thing: my fever’s back. I started having more trouble concentrating this morning and tried to ignore it.

I was actually planning something for this afternoon, but found myself cycling home instead, barely able to react to the traffic in an adequate fashion.

I was pretty sure things weren’t okay by the time I decided to divert to get some groceries on my way home. I’d originally been hoping to take up my afternoon plans after a quick rest at home, but now it looks like anything away from home isn’t going to happen until tomorrow at the earliest.

The only good point is that with the fever my shoulder seems to be a little easier to deal with. Then again that might just be because, as my doctor advised me, keeping it warm helps, and my body is certainly keeping things warm right now.

The one good point is that the fever appears to be a little lower than it was last week,  hopefully a good night’s sleep (provided I can get one some time soon) will clear things up. It may not be a coincidence that I’m getting this again after a night where I woke up four times during the night.

I’ve begun the process of trying to prepare myself mentally for a lower wordcount than last year. Mind you I wouldn’t mind writing 120k or more again, but I think I may be too busy with other things this November to aim for that.

I was talking about that to a friend last night when I realised that I didn’t write all that much last year, leaving out the three best days (good for over 40k between them) the total dropped to a mere 80k. Then I realised I’d said “not that much” and “80k” together. From which I concluded I probably have some more preparing for lower wordcounts to do.

Of course on the other hand if I get a couple of those days again, who knows what could happen…