The Words: 1140 words total for the day. I don’t like taking another short day already, but we had too much to get done around the house for me to have much time to write this evening. And that might continue to be the case the rest of this week. I’ll have to figure out a way to balance things. But I’m still above the line for where I should be at this time, so it’s not all bad.

The Story: Okay, so I’m kind of stalling again. The woman doing Garend’s evaluation is asking him questions about his life that allow him (and me) to tell stories from a previous book that probably don’t need to be re-hashed. But it’s giving me a chance to get to know Garend a little more myself. Just because he has a role in another book doesn’t mean there’s not a whole lot more for me to know about him.

Total word count: 19,376

The Words: 1758 words total for the day. I did a couple of 15-minute sprints, which took me to around 1530 words, and I wrote for a few more minutes to hit part to end up at the total words I got for the day. 

The Story: Garend is finally getting into his evaluation, and the woman in charge is a little…well, let’s just say that even I’m not sure what to make of her. Of course, that’s probably because she just popped into existence today and I’m getting to know her as I go, but that’s the fun of writing!

Total word count: 18,236

The Words: 607 words total for the day. I didn’t get to my writing time until after 10 pm tonight, so I did a quick 10-minute sprint to at least get some words in. Not too bad.

The Story: Not a whole lot happened in 600 words, but I did end today’s writing on the precipice of taking a huge step forward. So tomorrow’s writing should either be really interesting or really difficult.

Total word count: 16,478

The Words: 1727 words total for the day. It was a little rough getting these words today, since my normal evening writing time was co-opted by my husband needing some things from me and other distractions. I thought about cutting it short, but since I won’t be home all day tomorrow, I knew I needed to make sure to at least hit par today.

The Story: Garend is still waiting to go through an evaluation to be allowed to even enter Ophaela. I would think I’m still stalling, but I don’t really feel like I wrote anything today that was just fluff. Not that it’s all super important, but I think I’m still exploring this new situation through Garend’s eyes, which was the plan for this month anyway. So I’m happy with it.

Total word count: 15,871

If anyone out there is doing a writing challenge this month and needs a little inspiration as we start into week 2, check out the 2nd episode of the NaNoMusical!

The Words: 2008 words total for the day. I’ve really been making use of the Sprinter site this year. When I write with my 15-year-old daughter (who isn’t doing a challenge but will do sprints with me some evenings to work on her own WIP), I write at the table with her, on my Freewrite Alpha, but when I write alone, it’s easier to do it on my computer. And I’m finding the Sprinter site nice for sprints (natch), plus it automatically saves what I write to the same location as my Alpha does, so it’s really just super convenient all across the board. These will probably be my go-to methods for drafting for the foreseeable future.

The Story: Poor Garend spent all of today’s writing recovering from the journey to Newland, which was really tough, physically speaking. And I may be stalling again, a little bit, because I didn’t plan any of this, and I’m really not a pantser. Except it’s not trying to pants a semblance of a story that’s causing the problem, it’s the utter lack of planning I’ve done for this whole new part of the world. This month’s writing was meant to be a way for me to explore it, but too many technical aspects are coming up and slowing me down. I may have to skip past some stuff or really just leave it super rudimentary.

Total word count: 14,144

The Words: 1670 words total for the day. I almost made today a short day, since I got a late start and am tired this evening. I figured I’d do a single 15-minute sprint, but when that got me just shy of 1000 words, I figured it wouldn’t take much more time to get to par, so I wrote until I hit another 667 words. (I wrote this post last night and then forgot to publish it. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before, but maybe it just goes to show how tired I was last night.)

The Story: Garend has finally made it to Newland, which was the whole point of this month’s writing—to explore Newland with Garend. Technically, he’s outside of Newland, because he has to be evaluated first to be allowed into Newland. But I’m already in completely uncharted waters now, so this should be a fun rest of the month.

Total word count: 12,136

The Words: 1725 words total for the day, most of which came in two 15-minutes sprints early in the evening. Then after a longer break, I used the word tracker on the Sprinter site again, set my goal for the 120 words I had left to hit 1667, and wrote until a natural break, which pushed me a little past the goal. And I broke 10k words!

The Story: Even Garend admitted that he was stalling in going to Newland, so by the end of today’s writing, he was stepping out into that journey. Of course, how he’s getting there is as much of an unknown to me as it is to him, so I guess I’ll figure that out tomorrow.

Total word count: 10,466

The Words: 1700 words total for the day, much smoother than yesterday. I had more free time this evening and did a 15-minute sprint to start with, using the Sprinter site. Then I switched to word goal instead of time and set it for 700 words, since that’s how far away I was from the daily goal of 1667 words and called it a day.

The Story: Garend has made the arduous decision to go to Newland. He’s finally been enticed enough by the person who came from there to try to convince him to go back with her. He’s not exactly happy about it, though, since he feels sad (and not a little guilty) leaving behind some people who had become special to him. But the benefits are too good to pass up.

I think that tomorrow I’m going to have to finally dive into Newland, which I’ve been avoiding, and not just for the last 4 days. For years, really.

Total word count: 8741

The Words: 1900 words total for the day, which felt like a miracle. I did a 15-minute sprint that was a little more distraction-filled than usual and ended with around 750 words. It was getting late, and I considered leaving it at that, eating up a lot of my first-day lead. But I pushed myself to start another sprint, figuring I’d at least get another 700. Fortunately, I got onto a roll and wrote over 1100 words in that 15 minutes, which put me past the 1667 daily goal!

The Story: Garend is beginning to weaken, not because he actually wants anything to do with the stranger that he’s at least starting to get to know, but because he’s finding himself more and more intrigued by the idea of being able to visit Newland. But he can’t just visit Newland—it will require a commitment that he isn’t yet willing to make.

I definitely feel like I’m stalling, but then I remember that it’s only day 3, so I have plenty of time to flounder through writing about Newland.

Total word count: 7041

The Words: 1500 words total for the day. I’m not going for more than par every day this month, but I didn’t expect to come in shy of 1667 so early in the month. Today was a full day, though, and I didn’t get to writing until late, so I’m happy with what I got from the 2 15-minute sprints I did this evening.

The Story: Garend has a lot of questions for his visiting stranger about Newland, but she’s not really giving him the answers he’s looking for. She is, however, giving him enough to be intrigued and at least consider leaving Pithea and going to Newland. Considering that my plan for this month’s writing was to actually show Newland, it’s taking me a while to get there, but that’s okay. These discussions are good for me to get down anyway.

Total word count: 5132