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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Okay, so it doesn’t roll off the tongue like NaNoWriMo does, but oh well. I am tracking my progress with a challenge called Novel November, but I’m not particularly attached to the name or the site (which is just a sales site for some kind of writing tool). So I’m making it my own this year.
The Words: 3632 words total for the day. I started right at midnight just like old times (it’s only been 3 years since I did this last, but man did it feel like longer) and did 2 15-minute sprints before going to bed. That got me to 1800 words, which was already more than the one-day goal of 1667. Then couple of sprints this evening–one 20 minutes and one 15–got me the rest.
So far I’m using my Freewrite Alpha, which is new since I last had much to actually write (mostly I’ve been doing revising work for a while now), so it’s taken some getting used to. But I do love the mechanical keyboard feel and sound.
The Story: Up until a week ago, I had no idea what I might write this month. I thought I’d end up just freewriting with prompts every day. So when my husband gave me a brilliant idea last Sunday, I only had a week to think about it. But in truth, I didn’t need to do any planning. I’m basically just writing about a side character in the book I’m currently revising to hopefully publish within a few months, “Power,” who has a story arc that takes him out of the book and onto his own adventures. What happens to him doesn’t really come back into play for a long time, and it’s not front and center in any of the future books I have planned. But my husband suggested I write about what he gets up to in a far off land that will be front and center in a later book. And since that gives me a chance to explore that place that so far has been a fairly nebulous future idea, I jumped at the idea!
So today I wrote about Garend, who has had a visitor from a stranger that wants to be part of his life. The stranger told him of a far-off land (we’ll call it Newland for the sake of avoiding potential spoilers) that, though he wants nothing to do with the stranger, he can’t help but be intrigued about.
Garend, who overall has a minor role in “Power” came out a lot more in my writing today, and apparently he’s a man who holds a grudge. Who knew?
Total word count: 3632
And in honor of November 1st, because even if it’s not really NaNoWriMo, the NaNoMusical still showcases the spirit of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Plus, I can’t help but love spreading the NaNoMusical love, so here is episode 1!
This will be the cover for my third full-length novel, book #3 in the Pithea series, which will most likely be released early next year. I’ll post about that when it gets closer. Below is the synopsis for the book:
For as long as Alexander Surett can remember, he’s planned to be a bounty hunter like his dad, bringing in criminals to stand trial. And when he gets his first taste of Power usage, he knows that the Power is what he will use to chase those criminals. But during the years-long training on the way to that goal, he stumbles onto an innocuous item from his dad’s past that leads him to question everything he’s been told. Soon it becomes clear that his family’s past tragedy is only the tip of the iceberg.
He brings his unwitting training partner, a Cleric named Leahna Isa, along on his search for answers, and together they attract the unwanted attention of the leader of a band of mercenaries. Rusalki Morano doesn’t like to be told “no,” and the consequences will have devastating effects on both Alexander’s and Leahna’s families—and all of Pithea.
I continued reading book #3 (“Power”) out loud this past week, managing to get 20 minutes in every day. It continues to be a huge benefit—necessity, even—as I wait for my sisters to read it and give me their feedback as well. Hopefully this will be the last intensive revision the book needs before it’s ready to be published, but we’ll see what they say when they get through it too.
A Journey of Words 