If you are in a comfortable place right now in word count with the NaNoWriMo, then by all means take a break. Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S., and if you are a hardcore writer like me then you will want to write today, but fight the urge.
Last night I went to my wife’s parents house (which is just down the road) with my wife and kids so that we could visit with some friends who came down from Chandler. My wife’s brother is visiting this week from Indiana and has brought his wife and six children. My kids don’t get to see their cousins but once a year and it’s great to see them play together.
Like a dork I brought my laptop, thinking I would find a lull in the visiting time to crank out a few words. I did. I now regret it. Sure, it was a quiet hour while the kids were all playing outside and the adults wandered up the road to check out the massive camper bus that my brother in law had used to ferry his family from Indiana, but I could have gone to the camper bus with them.
That thing is like something a rock star would use, and they were gifted the use of it by a friend of theirs.
My point is, that if you take you laptop to your Thanksgiving celebration today, then be ready to feel bad about it later. My advice is that if you are caught up, then take the time to enjoy your family. That must come first. If, and I am really stressing the if, you are there all day and the old guys are snoozing in front of the football game and your kids are playing happily outside or in a back room and nobody wants to chat with you or catch up (or heaven forbid discuss politics) then by all means crank out a few hundred words.
I’ll be a dork again today, but writing will be the lowest priority.
Writing Is Hard Work 