The Words: 2142 written today. I had so much time to write this evening, but I just couldn’t focus for a while. I reached that word count before 11 pm, and could have gone on to get a bit more, but I didn’t really feel it. I don’t know if I’m still recovering from pushing for 25k on the first day, or if I’m just not as into my story as I have been previous years. Either way, I’m still ahead and making steady progress, so I certainly can’t complain.
The Story: Darcy’s feeling some stress from the situation with the blade smith who was attacked, especially since she’s the one who found him. I’m really not sticking with the more light-hearted feel I wanted the story to have, but I think that’s because I forget I’d wanted that mood as I write. That might be something I’ll have to try to inject later, but in the end, I may just not be able to pull it off. Also, she’s encountering more oddly behaving blacksmiths in her quest to interview them for the tribute video.
Total word count: 31,221
Don’t forget to check out today….er, tomorrow’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 5th
The Words: 2044 written today. I started writing around 9:30 pm, after my youngest was finally in bed. Then, after I’d written only 500 words, my husband decided we should drive out into the country a bit to try to see the northern lights. That was a bust, and I got back to my computer around 11:15. I was able to get another 1500 words in with a few sprints on my own using Write or Die.
The Story: Darcy’s dad was confronted by an angry fellow blacksmith, who was slinging all sorts of accusations that made no sense. He was angry, though, and Darcy wonders if someone’s been feeding him misinformation. Also, the missing blade smith has been found, and the mystery has only deepened. He was beaten, buried and left for dead, but by whom? Darcy has an inkling, but it’s more of a wild guess right now.
Total word count: 29,079
Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 3rd
Quick Tip: (If I have these, I’ll put them at the beginning, so if anyone chooses not to read about my progress, they won’t miss the tip!) So you know how you can update your word count by typing the number into the field at the top of the website? I would suggest that every so often, you actually go ahead and check your official word count. I do this at the end of every day, because if I’m 100 words lower than I’d thought, I want to know as soon as possible. The reason for this is that different word processors count words differently, and the NaNo site counts them differently than some of those word processors. By the end of the month, you could be even up to a thousand or more words off, and if you’re just barely getting to 50k, you don’t want to suddenly find out at 11:50 pm on Nov. 30 that you’re 1000 words shy. So just copy & paste your whole novel into the field that comes up when you click on “Check my official word count” under the “update” button.
Now onto my daily update:
The Words: 2025 written today. I did a few word sprints with https://twitter.com/NaNoWordSprints after 9 pm and wrote some in between. I spent as much time talking on my region’s Skype group as I did writing. I was shooting for 1667 and went a little above that, so I’m happy.
The Story: After yesterday’s race to 25k, I had left a little bit of a mess. The story takes place over 9 days, starting on a Saturday. I’d written Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and then started into Tuesday. But then I had to write some extra I’d forgotten to include for Monday, and when I was done with that, I got the next few days mixed up and started into Wednesday, with some of Tuesday’s events.
Because it’s NaNo, I didn’t fix the mistake, but instead restarted Tuesday and left the mess to sort out later. So today I wrote about Darcy, the MC, interviewing her dad and a friend of the family, both blacksmiths, for a video that is meant to be a tribute to the blacksmith community in their area. This is the main plot, or at least the backdrop to the conflict. The actual conflict, a missing blade smith, didn’t really come up in today’s writing. But it will tomorrow.
Total word count: 27,035
Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 2nd
The Words: 25,010 written today! Okay, yeah, so wow. I basically decided some time in the last week to go for a 25kDayOne. I figured I’d be writing for basically 24 hours with little mini breaks now and then. And I had this little hope in the back of my mind that maybe I’d do so well that I’d actually get close to 50k.
The main thing I learned today is that just because I can write this fast doesn’t mean I should do it too often.
Basically, I averaged 2k per hour, for the first 7 hours, at which point I realized I was fading hard. I went to bed, woke up and went with my husband to pick up some leftover Halloween candy. Got back to writing while eating my lunch, never quite got back up to the same pace, and decided that when I hit 25k, I’d call it for the day. That happened just before 7 pm.
This is a screen shot of the spread sheet I kept throughout the day. I took a few notes in case I wanted to remember things later.
I’m still going to write every day this month. For at least the next few days, if I get the daily minimum done and feel like stopping, I will. I came pretty close to burning out today, and don’t want to risk it.
The Story: I’ll be honest. This story went nowhere good in 25,000 words. I barely got to the actual plot. Most of what I wrote was just showing what life is like at a reenactment. If I decide someday to try to do something further with this story, the first thing I’ll probably have to do is figure out how to break some of that up throughout the rest of the story so the main plot and conflict start sooner. The blade smith, Shawn Mallory, did finally go missing, though, and the MC, Darcy, has started doing video interviews with the different blacksmiths at the reenactment, at the behest of one of the older smiths, so they can compile a tribute to a retiring smith and the community he’s fostered in their region. (Yes, the word “smith” or “blacksmith” came up a lot just in this paragraph. Imagine how the rest of the story sounds. But that is the focal point of the story, so that’s just how it’s going to be. It’s easier when they have names, but I figured trying to include them all here would just be more confusing.)
Total word count: 25,010
Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 1st
And in honor of November 1st, the first episode of the NaNoMusical!
A Journey of Words 