NaNoWriMo Day 16

The Words: 2066 total words, most of which, just like the last two days, was written during 2 sprints with my daughter. Nothing particularly special to today’s writing, but I’m plugging ahead, one small chunk at a time.

The Story: I continued with a few scenes from the antagonist’s POV for most of today’s words. Though she’s not actually the “head honcho,” she’s definitely the best choice for a POV character. I’m really enjoying watching how the behind the scenes action plays out from her perspective, though I think some of what I’m writing is me working it out as I go, even though I thought I had it worked out when I outlined it. It might have still been a little messy, so I’m figuring out how it will work while writing the first draft.

Total word count: 33,508

If you want to join me in my journey through the second year of NaNoToons (with a storyline), check out the NaNoToon from November 16, 2011!

NaNoWriMo Day 15

The Words: 2195 total words, most of which was again done during 2 sprints with my daughter. And since I was close to 2000, I wrote a little more after she went to bed. I think I’m going to try to keep 2000 as my daily word goal for now, to try to avoid running out of story before the end of the month.

The Story: Most of today’s writing was from the POV of the antagonist, a perspective I added since the first attempt at drafting this novel. I initially didn’t intend for it to remain part of the story, but figured it would help to write it so I could better understand how the intricacies of the plot fit together. But the more I write of it the more it feels like part of the story, so we’ll have to see how it turns out. Besides, without it, the draft might be a little too short.

Total word count: 31,442

If you want to join me in my journey through the second year of NaNoToons (with a storyline), check out the NaNoToon from November 15, 2011!

NaNoWriMo Day 14

The Words: 1353 total words, done during 2 sprints with my daughter early in the evening. I decided not to go for more. It’s definitely been a slower-paced NaNo for me this year.

The Story: A pivotal moment for the story happened in today’s writing, but I wasn’t really feeling it. I think it’s because of the difficulty I’ve had planning this story in a way that will make it work better than the first time I tried to write it. Hopefully I won’t struggle too much to push past this part tomorrow.

Total word count: 29,247

If you want to join me in my journey through the second year of NaNoToons (with a storyline), check out the NaNoToon from November 14, 2011!

NaNoWriMo Day 13

The Words: 2910 total words, my highest daily word count this month. I also passed the halfway point! I started out with a solo 15-minute sprint before supper, then after supper my daughter wanted to write together. She’s a bit behind, so she wanted to get as much in as she could before bedtime. I did a 10-minute and a 30-minute sprint with her alongside the @NaNoWordSprints feed on Twitter, and then she went on to do a couple more short sprints by herself when I realized how many words I had for the day.

The Story: I finished most of the scenes I’d brainstormed last Saturday to fill out the word count more. I’ve left one because I’m not sure yet how it will fit into the story, or even who it will involve. I got to the end of the last of those scenes in the middle of a sprint, but I wasn’t prepared for that. I didn’t know where I’d last left off in the bulk of the story, so I had to go back and find it. Then I finished another scene and wasn’t prepared to go on in my outline, so I had to load up Scrivener during a sprint. A little messy, but now I’m back to the story proper. On the other hand, I liked writing those other scenes, which are connections to the larger series. I actually considered keeping the last one going past what I really needed for the story, since I was in the middle of a sprint at the time and was enjoying the topic at hand. But I didn’t.

Total word count: 27,894

If you want to join me in my journey through the second year of NaNoToons (with a storyline), check out the NaNoToon from November 13, 2011!

NaNoWriMo Day 12

The Words: 1894 total words, all written by my lonesome in one 15- and one 20-minute sprint. I expected it to be another day to just write a few words to keep my streak, because my husband and I were supposed to go to a concert tonight. But it was postponed (for possibly a year) due to a large number of the tour personnel testing positive for covid. So I guess I can appreciate the small silver lining that I had time to write.

The Story: Today I got to visit a part of my world that is off the beaten path, so to speak. And even more fun, I got to visit a couple of characters who have been tucked away for a while. One of them is a main character in a past book and changed a lot between then and the time in this book, so it’s kind of like getting to know a new character. And there was more reminiscing of previous books, which always makes for quick and fun writing.

Total word count: 24,984

If you want to join me in my journey through the second year of NaNoToons (with a storyline), check out the NaNoToon from November 12, 2011!

And 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 11

The Words: 2613 total words. I was feeling better all around today, so here’s hoping that ‘s the end of the sickness and other problems from this week. I wrote two 10-minute sprints with my 11-year-old daughter, who woke up early today to get some extra writing in too, since she’s let herself get behind. Then this evening, I caught a 20-minute sprint with the @NaNoWordSprints feed on Twitter to get the rest of the words for the day.

The Story: Today’s writing involved a lot of reminiscing about past stories, as two characters tried to make sense of something that’s going on. They won’t get to make sense of it in this book, but it is a bridge between the previous ones and the next one.

Total word count: 23,090

If you want to join me in my journey through the second year of NaNoToons (with a storyline), check out the NaNoToon from November 11, 2011!

NaNoWriMo Day 10

The Words: 2217 total words, which I’m pretty happy about after yesterday. The sinus headache at the back of my head came back part way through the day, not to mention general tiredness brought on by sickness, but after a few hours of relaxing in bed, I made myself go downstairs to write instead of using my Neo in bed. I figured I’d let myself be lazy again if I stayed in bed. I sprinted for 10 minutes while waiting for a longer sprint on the @NaNoWordSprints feed on Twitter to be over, and then joined them for a 30-minute sprint, which got me 1699 words. I called it a night after that.

The Story: A particularly volatile character was visited in prison, and I’m not sure I wrote her very well. She’s going to be the most difficult character to get right in this story, as well as the one before it where she has the most “screen time.”

Total word count: 20,477

If you want to join me in my journey through the second year of NaNoToons (with a storyline), check out the NaNoToon from November 10, 2011!

NaNoWriMo Day 9

The Words: 224 total words just to be able to keep my writing streak. Every year I have at least one day like this—banging out some words just to be able to say I wrote. Today it was due to 3 (most likely) unrelated sources of pain working together it impossible to concentrate for very long. One of those is a sinus infection causing a near-constant headache in the back of my head. Hopefully it won’t last long, because it wipes me out and at times stops me in my tracks.

The Story: I continued the scene I started yesterday…uhh…there was some discussion about why one of the characters should be kept out of something that might make her more overwhelmed than she already is. It was 224 words, so not a lot happened.

Total word count: 18,260

If you want to join me in my journey through the second year of NaNoToons (with a storyline), check out the NaNoToon from November 9, 2011!

NaNoWriMo Day 8

The Words: 1280 total words for the day, though the lower word count today wasn’t intentional. I just didn’t get home until around 11 pm, so I did a couple of 10-minute sprints just to get some words in.

The Story: I shifted gears a little today. Yesterday, I took some time to brainstorm some other ideas of things to add into the story to fill it out some. Most of it was actually necessary in the story anyway, because otherwise the previous book, chronologically speaking, would have some plot points just left dangling. Though the continuation of those things weren’t crucial to the main plot of this book, I think I can tie them into a decent sub-plot. So I started writing that today, because the first of these events should have happened already in the story, before the spot I’d gotten to as of yesterday.

Total word count: 18,036

If you want to join me in my journey through the second year of NaNoToons (with a storyline), check out the NaNoToon from November 8, 2011!

NaNoWriMo Day 7

The Words: 1029 total words for the day, a purposely lower word count. This was partly because I was tired and just wanted to be done a little earlier, and partly because I want to try to keep from finishing the story before the end of the month. I did brainstorm some other scenes, which I think I can possibly tie together into something of a subplot, but I don’t know that they’ll add enough for me to go back to 2500 words per day.

The Story: Stuff really hit the fan today, and that 1000 words took me right up to the beginning of a loud, attention-grabbing confrontation that will set the scene for a major plot point to follow. I’m actually not sure how well the confrontation will come out, whether or not I can keep it from just sounding comical, but that’s tomorrow’s problem.

Total word count: 16,756

If you want to join me in my journey through the second year of NaNoToons (with a storyline), check out the NaNoToon from November 7, 2011!