Every year I see other writers posting their progress for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—every November) and I think, “I wish I was doing that.”
But then I never do.
So this year, I planned and pulled out an old piece I haven’t touched since 2009, dusted it off, and made an outline so that I could reasonably complete 50,000 words by the end of the month. In case you’ve noticed—I’m rather wordy, and I don’t believe 50K will be anywhere near the finished first draft, but it will help. I’d written a prologue and two chapters that was over 13K to start with, so, we will see.
I wasn’t even going to mention this, because I am afraid to be held accountable. But, that is the best way to accomplish a goal, so there. Also, I am in the middle of a three week stint teaching a college express course, so bad timing. But I won’t be deterred. So I did all my teaching and mothering, and sat up with my husband watching a movie, and then when everyone was asleep, I pulled out the laptop and wrote for 2 hours (12AM - 2AM). I completed over 2000 words, which is above my daily goal—score!
It’s funny because even with all my careful outlining, I’ve already had a character go rogue. He was supposed to help a main character find out information slowly over time, but when I typed the quotation mark on the screen, he just blurted out everything she needed to know. I’m rolling with it, I hope he knows what he is doing.
So excited.