Here's the basic rundown of how my personal writing challenge has been going so far:

Day One:

I am enthusiastic and ready to go. I eat dark chocolate to keep myself alert and lemon water to keep hydrated. To overcome my tendency to over-edit while typing, I try to keep usage of the backspace button to a minimum. Instead, I move my cursor to where I made the mistake and continue typing without erasing what I did before. I've found that this is a better medium between being in the moment and editing.  After all the typing my hands felt a little crampy. Made plans to use Swype instead next time.

Time: 2 hours 30 min
Words: 2,000

Day Two:

When I come out of my room my husband says to me, "You're really playing up the disheveled writer look."

"I'm not trying to," I say, afraid of how naturally the stereotype came to me. I wore a relaxed, button up blouse, a just above knee length, casual skirt, and my hair was loose and frizzy. And the fact that I wear glasses didn't help. Guess I just need to own up to the fact that I am a disheveled writer right now.

I used Swype, and just as I thought, it's slower. However, I have less of an urge to correct myself. I decided to go back to typing on Day 3.

Time: 2 hours 50 minutes
Words: 2,069

Day Three:
Since I didn't like the idea of having hand cramps from typing, I introduced the Pomodoro method to my writing time. I've used it for other things and didn't really care for it, but for writing, it is killer. I ate more chocolate and used my Pomodoro breaks to exercise. Not bad. I take the leap and turn off spellcheck.

Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Words: 2,000

Day Four:

I listen to A9 on repeat as I write. I think about buying more Japanese and Korean music because I love the songs, and I'm not distracted by the lyrics. I'm typing and now have added coffee to the mix. I blame my fast typing on the cat-eared hat that I wear while I'm writing.

Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Words: 2,500

Day Five:

After day four I was feeling totally tired, so I decided to dial back the amount of time that I was writing. Still typing on my computer and using Pomodoro breaks to workout. I swore that next time I'm going to make my own iced coffee because I can make better ice coffee than what comes in those cartons from the store. I am amazed by how plot twists are coming to me naturally. I do have an outline, but sometimes things happen in a story that are unplanned by the writer that adds some spice and surprise. That's happening to me more often now, and I'm thrilled.

Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Words: 2,080

Notes:  While doing this my husband often asks me if it's tiring. It is sort of, although it takes not much more time than watching a movie. I think the hardest thing is that when I know it's the start of a new session my mind is like, "There is no way you can write that much!" But when I sit down and start typing, I do it. Every single time. So the hardest part is struggling against that mental wall when I sit in the chair. But once I get going, I cannot believe how naturally the words are coming to me.