Nanowrimo - how are you doing?

As many writers are ended with Nanowrimo this month, I've takes my students to write with the Young Writers Program.  They are doing GREAT! I have one student who knows ALL of the tricks to pounding out more worse - adding description, writing out contractions, fights between characters, etc.  She's ROCKING. 

I'm not doing as well.  I'm getting stuck in the middle of my stories again. I have two stories going right now. I'm writing a paranormal YA book and another installment of my Baxter books. I can come up with strong beginnings and strong endings, but I've probably said it before - I've got a problem with mushy minutes. I thought I had plot lines developed, but something dissolved right after the rising action started. 

I've heard many writers and authors talk about "winning" Nanowrimo, but I think that winning isn't the prize for me.  I typically have the end of a six weeks where I am grading and the start of a new six weeks that I need to plan out. I wish I could write more when they write.  I can be pretty competitive, but as I've grown older, I've realized just what is to gain (or lose) if I compete. 

Nano is different for me. Nano is a time where I do write more than usual. I stay just a little more focused.  Whatever I create during Nano is more than I had before. Maybe one day, I'll work out my grading schedule and have weeks of planning completed in advance.  Until then, I'll just be grateful for the work count I didn't have before.