Post NaNaWriMo Blues

A month ago, I started NaNoWriMo. The first day was glorious, eight thousand words completed, and I was extremely pleased with myself.

The weeks that followed were just as amazing. I was inspired, motivated, writing above par each day, even on days where I thought that I wouldn’t have the time. It was and incredible feeling, updating the website with my wordcount, watching it tick up and up. I was so proud of that graph.

Then, I completed it. On the 17th of November, I updated the NaNoWriMo website for the final time.

Now NaNoWriMo is over. And honestly… I miss it.

NaNoWriMo? Completed it, Mate

I completed NaNoWriMo on the 17th of November! I am so proud of myself, it’s a huge achievement.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. The idea might be to write a novel in a month, but I’m nowhere near finished.

Back to the grind my friends!

Flying Through It

Updates on the blog have been slower this week, but the writing has not. Last time I updated, I was just under half-way. Now, I’m just over 30,000 words, 60% completed.

I’m approaching the end of Act 1 of my novel, now. Just a few more scenes to write, and then I’ll be moving swiftly into Act 2. If we consider our story structures, I’m about a quarter of the way through the novel. Which means that my book will probably clock in at around 120k words.

Actually Productive

I said I wasn’t going to have time to write on the weekends. I said I was going to struggle to reach 2,280 words a day.

It turns out I lied on both counts.

I have been actually productive. On Saturday, I wrote 1,785 words. On Sunday, I wrote 3,067 words. And today, I have written 4,100 words.

I am frankly flabbergasted.

When to Make a Change

One of my favourite things to do is to approach my husband in the evening, sit down heavily on the sofa next to him, and say, ‘I think I’ve got a problem with my story.’ I’m sure he loves this, and doesn’t at all mind being interrupted when he’s focused on watching TV, playing a videogame, eating his dinner. I’m sure that I’m not at all annoying.

But he always puts down whatever he’s doing and lets me talk through the problem I’m having. It’s usually with plot. I explain to him the situation that I’ve written myself into, and how I need the situation to proceed. I tell him all of the options I’ve explored, and how none of them will work. I’m stuck. Does he have any ideas?

Writing Conflict

Day two and three of NaNoWriMo were much more difficult than day one, just as I predicted in my previous post. Now I’d moved onto the ‘real’ writing, the brand new stuff, with no plan except for a few scribbled sentences in a notebook. Daunting. But my new coffee machine was up and running, as the replacement writing candle had arrived. I was ready to get down to it.

Day two, I wrote 4,393, absolutely smashing my goal. So far on day three, I have written 1,705. Nearly there.

Deceptively Productive

November 1st. Big day.

I woke this morning feeling extremely motivated. Sure, my new coffee machine wasn’t here yet, and that candle that my husband said he was going to buy me to ‘get in the writing mood’ had arrived smashed, but I was feeling ready. After the blog post last night, I had spent another good few hours planning out Part 1 of my novel, and I was excited to get things moving.

Preparation

Today is the day – my only chance to prepare before the epic NaNoWriMo adventure begins. As I mentioned in my previous post, this is my very first time taking on the challenge, and I’ve got to admit, I’m a bit behind on the planning front. It’s worth noting that the NaNoWriMo website strongly recommends dedicating the entire month of October, or even more, to get ready.

I have less than twenty-four hours.

So, here’s the preparation work I’ve been doing today: going over plot, characters, and planning my writing habits and goals.

Am I Insane?

So I have decided to try NaNoWriMo. On the 30th of October. Two days away from the beginning of November.

Am I insane? That remains to be seen.

For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is a challenge that we authors set ourselves to write a book in the month of November. Well, it’s not a book. 50,000 words in a month – that’s 1,667 a day, every day. Still sounds daunting, but funnily enough, I have done this before.