So, for the first time in my life since I heard of this weird and wonderful thing called NaNoWriMo, I have managed to position myself in such a place to actually be able to do the thing. I’ve “attempted” once before, I think in 2016, and I had no plan, no idea even, and crashed and burned on day 2.
For those of you who have not heard about NaNo, it is short for National Novel Writing Month, and it happens once a year in November. (The “National” in the title used to be USA, I think, but is now very international.) The lofty goal is to write 50 000 words of a new draft of a book between 1 November and 30 November. This will definitely be a shitty first draft, because lol, I don’t know anyone who would actually write entirely good words for that first draft, particularly as a non-pro writer who is snatching pockets of writing time between work and chores and the rest of life’s commitments.
I set out to write my NaNo goal, intending (well, mostly) to do a half-volume NaNo of 25k of the new novel idea I’ve been prepping for the last few months. The reason for doing a half-volume edition was so that I could set my sights a little more realistically and not be entirely undone by the failure element, scaring myself off writing again for the next few months. So far, I’m on track. On track for the 50k, that is! Can hardly believe it, but I’ll keep chipping away at it, and if I get it all the way to 50k, that will be an incredible boost for me. Setting a firm goal for 25k, but aiming, in my heart of hearts, for the full 50k!
It’s worth noting that 50k is likely not going to be enough for this story (aiming for +-70k for the first draft), and that this first draft is going to be full of my wordy brain dump of some world building stuff I’ll have to sublimate into actions/dialogue in due course, but if I get it all on the page, then I have it to revise. You can’t revise a blank page, as say all the greats.
I’ve also gathered a few writing buddies from WI, and it’s just occurred to me that I should check out the Writers’ HQ forum for their unofficial thread.
I’m planning to do a weekly wrap-up/reflection with some stats, so expect one of those tomorrow for the first week’s words.
In the meanwhile, I’ve got to get back to my story, because my main character needs me!
Everyday Adventures 