Popping my head up from the word-count trenches to give a quick, week-two update…
(Here are my two previous posts about my NaNo foray if you’re interested: my commitment to actually participate, and my week 1 update.)
- Definitely some rough days where my mental/creative energy output wasn’t sufficient to hit that magic number (1,667 words). I gave myself a break, though, and didn’t force it. I was able to catch up on subsequent days, and am still on track for 50k by November 30.
- Having someone to write with and talk about daily progress with has been crucial. I have a friend out of state who messages me from time to time, and another friend I’m luck enough to share office space and literal writing time with. We had a long discussion yesterday about our manuscripts, and it was pretty great. I highly recommend getting a writing buddy or three. My NaNoWriMo site handle is awritingwall. Look me up, and I’ll be your buddy!
- The outline is still holding up! Totally shocked: me. I did have one little moment where I felt the urge to explore a scene that wasn’t on my outline, but I made a note of it, and kept going. When the word count is queen, there’s no time for exploratory writing…at least, that’s my current philosophy. I’m doing that every now and then: creating a comment in my Word doc of things I want to go back to, to tweak or expand, but don’t have time for right now. That’s allowing me to mentally stay focused on plowing ahead.
- The pacing of the story seems awfully fast. I have a theory that the mental state of the writer has everything to do with how fast/slow the beats of the story happen. My brain is pushing the story forward to meet word count goals, so it makes sense that things would feel rushed. We’ll see how this develops. I have a feeling, though, that this story will need to be slowed way down and fleshed out a ton. I already see many, many places where I’m BS-ing my way over details that really do need to be addressed.
- THIS. IS. FUN. It feels so great to get a story down in words, and feel like you’re really making progress on a whole book. Finishing up a word count goal for the day, I’m drained, but in a happy, satisfied kind of way, a bit like a runner might feel after a solid work out. That’s a guess. I’m not and never have been a runner. But it seems comparable. Runners out there, feel free to come at me. Tell me about your lives, and what it’s like to be fit and active.
All right, y’all, almost halfway done.
LET’S DO THIS.
♥
(My NaNoWriMo site handle is awritingwall. Look me up, and I’ll be your buddy!)
Allison Wall 