NaNoWriMo Day 21

November 21, 2019November 25, 2019 / Kristi / Leave a comment

The Words: 3538 words. I did a few sprints with @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter this evening, and some writing on my own between sprints. It’s nice to feel like I’m making progress with higher word counts again, but I think tomorrow will end up being another shorter day.

The Story: I went back to storyline 2 today and gave the main character there a chance to release some frustration over some pretty crappy things that have happened to him recently. And I realized that I don’t really know what my climax is for this book, because there’s a potential for one in storyline 2, but I had never planned to actually show this scene happening for multiple reasons. So I think storyline 1 might have to contain the climax, but thanks to some fresh ideas I’ve had come up during writing, that might actually be possible!

Total word count: 69,535

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already:
November 21, 2019

NaNoWriMo Day 20

November 20, 2019November 25, 2019 / Kristi / Leave a comment

The Words: 1727 words. I had an afternoon and early evening without kids today, but still ended up spending most of my free time during it working on formatting for “Pithea”. Then I had to head to my church for worship team practice (I’m on once a month), and realized how late it would be when I got home. So I took my Neo with me and wrote in the car for the second time this month.

It was dark all the way there and back, so it was really rough at first, because I couldn’t check the screen to see what I’d last written, and even though I try really hard not to backspace to fix mistakes, it’s a habit. So I wouldn’t know if I’d actually erased enough or too much. I ended up turning on the light on the mirror of my visor.

All of the words came during the half hour drive there and back, which was really not too bad at all, and I liked being able to make use of that time.

The Story: I wrote more for storyline 1 today, and think I will need to do that more tomorrow, because there is more of that left in the outline than for storyline 2. I hit on a new idea today, which will likely be part of the next book, or maybe come up near the end of this one. It was a somewhat larger “Aha!” moment building on the smaller one that occurred on day 15 and involves politics, which I never really thought I’d care to get into much in my books, but in a way that actually interests me. Hopefully I can make it interesting to readers too.

I claimed my win today (thanks to an email explaining how), which is always exciting! Also, my winner’s shirt will be arriving in a few days!

Total word count: 65,997

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already:
November 20, 2019

NaNoWriMo Day 19

November 19, 2019November 25, 2019 / Kristi / Leave a comment

The Words: 4118 words. The weekly write-in at my local library was today. It’s a small writing group that meets throughout the year, and none of them really do NaNo. Some like to come to the write-ins, though, and work on whatever writing they’re doing. No one showed up last week, so I went home after waiting about 15 minutes. Today, I had higher hopes that some would come, because it’s the Tuesday we normally meet monthly. But when no one was there at the starting time, I decided to start a 20-minute sprint myself, and at least get some writing in while also giving others a chance to arrive late. No one did, but at least I went home with a 1139 jump on my words tonight. The rest I got in a #1k30min sprint and a regular 20-minute sprint with @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter. It felt really good to get a higher word count again.

The Story: For the sprint at the library, I wrote for storyline 2b, which I haven’t spent as much time on this month, but is also the shortest of all the storylines (it is a sub-storyline, after all). The main character in that storyline got a little snarky and called his counterpart out, which was not in my plans.

The rest of the time was spent writing for storyline 2. That included more stress and anger, from the same character, actually. And then I started pantsing a scene that will transition from where I was to the next plot point in my outline.

I don’t quite know if I’m still on track to reach the end of the draft by the end of the month. Going strictly by the numbers, I’m about 70% of the way through my outline, and we’re only 63% of the way through the month. I keep adding new scenes that come up organically, or that seem necessary to get from one plot point to another, though. I’m still hoping to finish with all the little formatting thins I’m working for “Pithea” soon, which will give me the ability to go back to spending more time on my NaNoNovel. Publishing a book is a lot of work.

Total word count: 64,270

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already:
November 19, 2019
This is a good time to watch episode 4 of the NaNoMusical, where things really heat up!

NaNoWriMo Day 18

November 18, 2019 / Kristi / Leave a comment

The Words: 2127 words in 3 sprints with @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter. Not much more than that to say today.

The Story: Today was back to storyline 2, and plans for an escape are finally getting underway. I’m starting to question some of my ideas for this story, or for how certain characters act, but I’ll keep going this way for now, because that’s what NaNoWriMo is about. If it doesn’t work out in the end, I’ll revisit the outline and make changes for the 2nd draft.

Total word count: 60,152

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already:
November 18, 2019

NaNoWriMo Day 17

November 17, 2019November 18, 2019 / Kristi / Leave a comment

The Words: 2027 words in 2 sprints with @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter. My updates are getting pretty repetitive, because my NaNo writing lately has been very similar day by day. I am hoping to be done with the final revision of “Pithea” in the next couple of days (though will have to push hard to do that), after which I’ll send for one last (hopefully) proof copy, and start pushing to get through more of this draft in a day while I wait.

The Story: Like the last few times I wrote for storyline 1, today was a lot of discussion between the government leaders of two neighboring nations. I realized today that most of what they’re discussing is mostly just me figuring out how to proceed, since I’m veering off of my outline a bit. Or maybe just fleshing out what’s there. There’s also some very simple, somewhat immature flirting, which is always fun.

Total word count: 58,025

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already:
November 17, 2019

NaNoWriMo Day 16

November 16, 2019November 25, 2019 / Kristi / Leave a comment

The Words: 1954 words. I sat down to write near the end of a sprint on @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter, so I wrote a little to get warmed up while I waited for a sprint to start. Then they started a #1k30 (write for 30 minutes, try to write 1000 words), and I really hit a stride with the story, ending the half hour with 1637 words. It only took me a few minutes more writing to get to the number I ended with.

The Story: I was back to storyline 2 today, and got to write about a reunion between two old friends that goes back to my NaNoNovel from 2014. While things are drastically different for both of these friends, it was really fun to get to see them together again.

I am not progressing through my outline very quickly any more (it didn’t help that yesterday, I ended up pantsing an entire scene out of nowhere), so these shorter word count days are making me worried that I won’t finish the draft by the end of the month. But cutting it short has been helping me get through the final revision of my soon-to-be-published book, so…priorities.

Total word count: 55,998

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already:
November 16, 2019

NaNoWriMo Day 15

November 15, 2019November 18, 2019 / Kristi / Leave a comment

The Words: 2090 words. Half of the words were done along @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter, and the other half on my own trying out the Fighter’s Block website.

The Story: Today’s writing was for storyline 1, which was solely diplomatic talks. Right now, it seems like this storyline is 75% peace talks (and maybe it is), which I will have to scrutinize during revision someday. For now, though, I’m getting the sequence of events down. And I had a bit of an “Aha!” moment today, when one of the characters started to look suspicious to the others (and I didn’t originally plan for him to be a villain). I love the discovery in writing! It was a small eureka moment, as eureka moments go, but it was enough for me to award myself the badge.

eureka

Total word count: 54,044

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already:
November 15, 2019

NaNoWriMo Day 14

November 14, 2019November 18, 2019 / Kristi / Leave a comment

The Words: 1886 words. I did a great job with my first day of not pushing to write more than par or a bit above. I don’t like it, to be honest, and I really do worry about the likelihood of getting the draft done by the end of the month. But if I can get this line edit of “Pithea,” done and another proof copy on its way with some time left in the month, I’ll push for more words per day if it looks like the draft won’t get done otherwise.

The Story: The writing of storyline 2 today involved some revelation, including someone finding out that an old friend long thought dead wasn’t really dead!

Total word count: 51,954

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already:
November 14, 2019

NaNoWriMo Day 13 (50k!)

November 13, 2019November 14, 2019 / Kristi / Leave a comment

The Words: 3118 words. I sat down to write just in time to catch several back-to-back sprints on my region’s Discord server.

I realized earlier today that I am going to need to start splitting my writing time between NaNo and finishing final edits on “Pithea,” or I’m not going to have my book ready to submit for reviews in time for when I want to publish it. So today, I still had to push for 3k words because I was so close to 50k(!), but after this, I’ll likely stick to around 1667-2500 words per day so I have time to work on my soon-to-be-published book. I don’t know what this means for whether or not I’ll finish the first draft of my NaNoNovel, but we’ll just see how the rest of the month goes.

The Story: I really enjoyed writing more of storyline 1 today. Though most of it was back to diplomacy between the main characters’ country and their northern neighbor, I got to get into the head of a brand new character in this book (I don’t get the chance to do that much by this point in the series), and even got to write more about my favorite character in the entire series!

Total word count: 50,068

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already:
November 13, 2019
If the week 2 blahs have got you down (or even if they don’t), it’s a good time to check out the 3rd episode of the NaNoMusical!

NaNoWriMo Day 12

November 12, 2019November 14, 2019 / Kristi / Leave a comment

The Words: 3887 words. My local library’s weekly write-in was tonight, but it was a bust. I was the only one there, so I waited about 20 minutes and left. I wrote a little after supper, and then got the rest of the words during my normal writing time after my daughter went to bed. As is most common for me, I sprinted alongside @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter the whole way.

The Story: I went back to storyline 2 today and got to write about a character that has been talked about for many books, but wasn’t revealed until now. I loved getting into his head and following him to this new land where he lives!

Total word count: 46,950

I finally got around to typing up the short synopsis I wrote for my story earlier in the month. This only actually covers storyline 1, but I’m afraid of revealing too much so early in the life of the series I hope to publish, so this is all I’ll share for now:
The king of Altmoor has the daunting task of trying to bring peace to his region while rooting out the rogue faction that has kept the war going for hundreds of years. Even more difficult will be convincing his people–and himself–that their long-time enemy may not be the devils they always thought. Will it all fall apart when Altmoor’s rivals’ eyes are opened to the truth that the king himself only recently learned, and when he is shown the full depth of this secret?

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already:
November 12, 2019

A Journey of Words

NaNoWriMo 2019