You will be able to catch up if you believe you can. I'm behind too. But I'm still telling myself that I can do this. Even though I spent most of last week with a skull full of mush that used to be my brain. And next week will include a choreographed dance of appointments that makes my head spin just thinking about it. There's still two weeks.
If you keep going, you may be surprised with the plot ideas and events that start to unfold. I got about 10-12k in before I actually hit my stride. I started with my new MC and a dead body on her lawn. And then had a false start, but kept on anyway. It was hard because I knew that much of what I'd written (esp. the false start) was as rough as 60grit sandpaper and as useful as an umbrella underwater. But I kept on, found my stride, found my plot, and made some great progress.
If you keep going, without worrying so much about whether what you have is good or not, you might just find your stride, too. And the stuff you've written now may make more sense when you figure out where your story is going. You know, you can tie it in nicely later. =)
But remember, NaNoWriMo isn't for everyone. Some people are not able to push on and keep writing even while unsure of the ability to even call themselves "writers." It's a challenge to put aside the desire to write only good things and just write a story. It may or may not make any sense. But for those of us in the pack of fools often get back to just writing for fun with no worries. At least, that's my experience. I'm not worried about the fact that my timeline doesn't make sense as written or that I've got more cliches than a low-budget film. It's just fun writing a new character in a new story and getting those words and ideas shaken out of my head, good, bad, or super-ugly.
I encourage you to push on. Keep writing. It's OKAY if it sucks. At least you're trying. And you might just surprise yourself. Don't give up just because something is hard-- give it a fair try before you give up. And giving up isn't inherently failure. Different people have different writing styles. Some can do the 50k/30days insanity, others take much longer to plot and plod through their works. Neither is "right." But for now, I'd say, KEEP WRITING! Figure out what your character(s) want and what they're willing to do get that. And then put in some obstacles to make them *really* work for it.
