Finding my flow--Not letting NaNoWriMo kill me

I am on day 12 of NaNoWriMo--the ridiculous writing goal of 50,000 words in a month. My first novel has taken five years and is still not finished. So, the last week in October I said, "Hey, what's this? That sounds fun! Sure, let's give it a try." Ha! 

Well, I started out of the gate fine. I ignored my family, stayed up late, but was meeting the daily word goal of at least 1667 words. I was ahead on day 4, so on day 5 when I wasn't quite there I said, "I'll just make up for it tomorrow." Of course, with a run of days on less than ideal hours of sleep and two sick kids in the house, I caught a cold. I could not bring myself to stay up past 9:30 every night. Thanks, nanowrimo. What, are you trying to kill me? 

So, here I was--several days of less than 1667 words and I was way behind. 1667 words is a hard enough goal, but to add extra words to catch up is a nightmare. I had been writing the novel in chronological order, taking extra time to think out the transitions between scenes, letting the novel unfold. Throw that out the window. For the sake of word count I started jumping to the interesting scenes, letting the words flow like a river. 2000 words, 2200 words, 2600 words. Finally! Day 10 and I was caught up. 

Lesson learned--never plan on tomorrow to play catch up. Yesterday I wrote more than the 1667. I was ahead of the target word count for day 11. Woo hoo! Now, day 12. I'm on the right track but I know that going back to connect these random scenes is going to take time and not produce a lot of words. I need to get ahead now so those slow days can have a low word count.