The Words: 1367 written today. Oddly enough, exactly 300 below the daily word count. I almost didn’t make that much. I didn’t sit down to write until around 11:30 pm, so I’d say this is pretty good. I had planned to write at least the daily minimum every day, even with the lead I have. And just to be clear, though I’m not sure everyone does this, I cut off my chance at words for the day at midnight, because when it gets to the end of the month, November 30’s words have to stop at midnight. So I may write more tonight, but I’ll count it toward tomorrow’s words. I’ll probably try to knock out at least 300 words, which again will go into tomorrow’s totals, but given today’s lower number, I’ll probably still plan to write at least 1667 on top of that tomorrow.

The weekend is coming, so hopefully I can pull out of the funk I seem to be in about NaNo, I’m guessing stemming from pushing myself for 25k words on Sunday. By the end, I felt something I’ve never felt toward writing before–real dread and a sense of just not caring. Now that I know how that feels, I’ll know to stop pushing myself if it ever comes again.

The Story: Darcy went to interview another blacksmith for the tribute video–this time her dad’s chief rival. Most of today’s writing was from the rival smith and his wife’s perspective. They threw around some theories about why she was there with a camera–to steal their product ideas, or some other secrets that she’d then report back to her dad? Then Darcy asked him her questions, and his responses were much less friendly than most of the others’ had been.

Total word count: 32,588

Don’t forget to check out today….er, yesterday’s? NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 4th
(The person who does the NaNoToons has been traveling and got a little confused. He posted today’s comic yesterday and yesterday’s today. It’s all sorted now, but it was fun time traveling while it lasted.)

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