Overwhelmed and slacking it already

So I haven't written in the last three days. There are a list of reasons, and one of which does include procrastination. July 3rd, I woke up with a horrific migraine that persisted throughout the day. July 4th, I wasn't feeling well, and after a particularly earth shattering reaction to the end of a book I was reading, spent the rest of the night in a deep depression. Yesterday, I was reading another book, one that considerably cheered me up, but I was also procrastinating believing that NaNoWriMo was a bad idea for me.

The conclusion? I realized that I hadn't really tried yet. Writing 1,704 one day towards a novel wasn't putting in even half the effort it deserved. Although I wasn't writing the last three days, I didn't stop thinking about the novel and what I might write about if I actually sat down to do it. Today I finished up the novel I was reading and decided I needed to throw myself into this again.

As of this moment, I have added another 1,881 words to my word count. 3,585 words. I know that's about 15-16 pages. And you know what...that's the longest I've written towards one story in a long time. Most of my stories don't go past 5 pages, in fact, it's usually a struggle to make it to 5. My requirement I've gotten some up to 10 pages, but I don't think I've exceeded that in years. And the best part...I'm not done. I don't even feel close to being done. I'm actually seeing my novel through. This gives me hope. I've always wanted to be a novelist, but when you can't write a story more than 5 pages, the dream starts to die. So regardless if I finish my NaNoWriMo or not, I've started the novel, it's actually going somewhere and reaching large page counts and I can get this done.

My NaNoWriMo guide book says, "You'll need to put away 11,669 words by the close of the first week or risk feeling overwhelmed at the start of week two." Tomorrow is the close of the first week. I'm already overwhelmed. And yet, contrary to what the book suggests, I think week two will be easier for me than week one because the material is still being developed. Still, that's 7,084 I need to get in tonight and tomorrow. Good luck to me...