Yep, I've totally been bitten by the Hive Buzz badge bug...lol! Sad to say that even though I've been doing this challenge a couple times of a year for a few years, I've only ever managed the monthly badge twice.
And I will say that when I did my very first NaNoWriMo back in... 2006? I think?... I was stuck for a large part of the month, and my word count was ridiculously low. It wasn't until I decided to tell a fictionalized version of a court case I'd been involved in (as a witness & the person who'd blown the proverbial whistle) that the words flew from my fingers. When I went back to pure fiction, it was agony squeezing out enough words to cross the finish line.
I agree that making the writing a bigger priority is instrumental in winning the challenge. I know it's wicked early in the month, but I get a feeling you're gonna nail this!