The End of NaNoWriMo and 2017
Wow! November was a crazy month. Let's see...
I won National Novel Writing Month! It was my first time doing it officially and I managed to stay ahead until the last week, where it was suddenly looking very bleak. After a full day of writing in three different locations, the last of which was my writer friend's house for a writing sprint, I surpassed the 50,000 word goal and we all celebrated with beer, whiskey, and champagne. I felt it this morning.
Finishing that many words also means I am almost done with the second draft of my manuscript! A manuscript that finally has a working title! ... Which I will not be sharing just yet.
I took some time to work on a little bit of art this month, too. I have three semi-passable renditions of what some of the monsters in my series look like (and a whole bunch of other not passable ones), along with a couple maps.
I had two Thanksgivings, both of which I cooked for. Turkey for one, leg of lamb for the other, both turned out great.
So, with a successful November in my rear view mirror, now I've got December to look forward to. I'm going to carry my momentum into the last month of 2017 and end the year on a strong note.
How did you all do with NaNoWriMo? What's the end of 2017 looking like for you?
Halfway Through NaNoWriMo
November 15th and we're half way through National Novel Writing Month!
Here's a quick breakdown on my stats:
- 27,574/50,000 words written
- 1,838 average words per day
- 1,402 words per day to finish on time
I think that's pretty damned good, especially since this is the first time I'm actually doing NaNoWriMo!
I've been keeping my Twitter account up to date with my word counts (despite feeling extremely spammy about it) and I've had some great writing sessions with my critique group partners. I even had my dad in town for a week, during which my car broke down and I got zero writing done for three days! I've gotta say, I'm pretty proud of my progress.
But we all know, NaNo is all about quantity over quality, so let me shift a little and talk about what I'm writing.
It's been tough. There are days where a scene has just come together and it poured out of me through my fingertips, but there have been other days where I've just felt like I was slogging through the scene I was writing. I keep telling myself that I will fix it in the editing phase, but it's tough to see the end when you're in the middle of a chapter that just seems to fall flat. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
After the first few times that happened, I started to plan out my scenes with even more detail. I watched "How to Build a Scene | Writing" by YouTuber Rachel Stephan (link here) and that actually helped me out some. I'm not exactly following her suggestions, but it gave me a better framework for how to think about the scene and I built off of it. Setting the scene, choosing the protag, and figuring out the conflict was pretty good, but I also started to build little bullet points of specific items I wanted to hit within the scene. If I found myself meandering while writing, I'd go back to those bullet points and wrangle my writing back on track.
It hasn't been a complete fix, but it certainly has helped. I was able to get through a tough scene today and plan the next one which will, hopefully, be a breeze to get through. Lots more action, less emotion and dialogue. I also seem to have more trouble in scenes where I'm in my MC's POV as opposed to others, but that's a whole other story/problem for another blog.
How have you all been doing with NaNo? Are you hitting your word count goals? Are you ahead or behind? How's your WIP progressing? I want to hear!
Tuuuurn and face the strange, ch-ch-changes!
Phew! Been a few days since my last blog and I've been crazy busy with some serious changes to my life, Halloween, and NaNoWriMo prep.
First, an update.
In my last blog post, I had some vague things to say about potential life changes. Allow me to lift the shroud. I've decided to quit my job.
I've been at that job for over nine years and, especially lately, it has been a source of great amounts of stress. I don't want to get into the specifics of the job (for my former employer's sake and mine), but suffice it to say that the parting was amicable and that I believe it is, absolutely, the right decision to make.
This means, of course, that I'm now unemployed. I've started to look into another job, building my resume, etc etc, but I have decided I am going to take the entire month of November to focus on my writing first. No time like the present and I'm comfortable enough financially to be able to swing it.
Which brings me to NaNoWriMo.
National Novel Writing Month, for those who don't know what it is, is a challenge for writer's to write 50,000 words in 30 days (Nov 1 - 30). That works out to around 1,667 words a day.
I've never officially participated, so this will be my first year. I had two ideas outlined, but I've decided to go with the first draft of my manuscript. The goal is to have draft 2 finished by Nov 30th. Tonight, November 1st, I'm meeting up with my writing group to do a NaNo launch sprint. Tomorrow, Thursday, I'm meeting with them again for another sprint, which will repeat every Thursday.
Are you planning on participating? If so, did you outline anything beforehand? How are you keeping track of your word counts? Let me know.
P.S. No Stranger Things 2 spoilers, please. Slowly working my way through it!
Upcoming Changes
Ever been in a position where you want to share what's going on, but everything is still up in the air? Where you're not sure what to say, but you feel the need to say something?
That's where I am right now.
I'm in the beginning of some big changes in my life. They weren't exactly a long time coming and it's happening quickly. I'm scared, anxious, excited, sickened, and relieved. I'm cautiously optimistic while being on the brink of overwhelmed. I'm sad and happy and dazed.
Could I be any more vague?
I mean, technically, sure.
I just don't want to get ahead of myself before I have more details to give you.
I guess what I can say is that I'm making some big changes in my life that should affect my emotional and mental stability, my health, and my writing. This will be an important week for me and could be the beginning of a brand new chapter in my life.
Stay tuned, folks.
Save the Cat!
And just like that, I'm back on track.
Rhyming aside, accidental or otherwise, I'm feeling pretty good.
I got a decent chunk of writing done this last Thursday and did the same today. I had friends in town, so Friday and Saturday weren't great on the writing front, but it was great to see them. Went out for drinks, went to Six Flags, etc.
Anyway, the real reason I'm writing is that today I broke through the weird funk-like, semi-existential crisis I've been having with my manuscript.
I bit the bullet, admitted it was too unwieldy, and cut a whole bunch of stuff out to be used for book two (if I'm lucky). Then, I took what remained and put it through Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet, introduced to me by one of my writing group fellow writers.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with it or haven't read Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder, here's where you can check out the general gist. Go ahead and check it out (the link will open in a new window) and come on back.
I've always struggled with other people's beat sheets or explanations of three act plot structures or whatever else is out there. This is the only one that's gotten through to me in a succinct and easily understandable way. If you're like me and like writing by the seat of your pants, or have a hard time outlining, I would highly recommend it. The "screenwriting" aspect of it can easily be tailored to novel writing.
So, where at the start of last week I was panicking and judging myself and hating my work, I now have renewed energy to continue forward with my WIP. What this also means, however, is that I'll be doing this third rewrite of my novel for NaNoWriMo instead of the standalone novel I had outlined. Coincidentally, I used Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet for that outline, too. I'll be shelving that one again for now. Maybe next NaNoWriMo.
That's it for me, tonight. Got laundry, some coffee and food with my name on it, and after a little more writing I'm going to unwind and get ready for this week.