I'm begining to think that writing 50,000 fictitious words [1] is probably the only way I'll ever complete a novel during National Novel Writing Month [2].
Spring [3] and I went to a local meetup of fellow Nonowrimoers in Palm Beach County [4], which clarified my thoughts about Nanowrimo—basically, I'm not up to the task [5]. I just don't have the headspace for fictional writing, nor even non-fictional writing about a fictional subject.
Part of that is lack of discipline; on remaining focused on finishing a task when I've become bored of it, or I find it too difficult and wander off on some other project. Another part is the aformentioned headspace. It's not that I lack ideas—I have plenty of ideas. I just lack the ability to write more than a few hundred words about any of them.
And it certainly didn't help matters that the atmosphere of the meetup was not conducive to writing—what with having to block out the loud conversations about Harry Potter and classroom hijinks.