The point of NaNoWriMo, for me at least, is not to write for the sake of word count. It’s to make a habit of writing daily. Usually I can knock 1667 words a day out, no problem and I’ve won every year I’ve participated. However, I usually have to trash those 50k and rewrite the whole thing.
Why? Because I pantsed the drafts and had no idea how they were going to end. (No, I didn’t pull down the pants of my WIP and expose its undies. In the writing community, a pants, pantsing, pantsed, refers to writing by the seat of your pants and a pantser is someone who pants their novel. In other words, writing with no outline or plan.) The NaNo drafts were the equivalent to world building notes/outline in story form not good writing. Fifty thousand words of mostly telling.
Even last year’s Scavengers of the Starsea ended up being rewritten.
This year, I made an outline in Scrivener, and I’m trying to stay in scene and not do a lot of telling. I want to edit/revise this draft not rewrite an entirely new draft. Writing this way has slowed me down as has reviewing what I wrote the day before and making minor edits (I keep what I cut. I just highlight it read. I wrote those words, they’re going to count, damn it.)
So, yes, I’m technically behind, but I feel this draft is a lot better quality than other years. So, my new NaNoWriMo rule is quality as well as quantity. It’s slower, but I will like what I wrote a lot more later.