NaNoWriMo 2019

[jimhines]

At the last minute — okay, technically after the last minute, since it was later in the day on November 1 — I signed up for National Novel Writing Month. I joined knowing there was pretty much 0% chance of me reaching the 50,000 word goal for November. I doubt I’ll even get close.

Which is fine, because while 50,000 words of novel would be great, that’s not my goal. I wanted to try to push myself into working more on Terminal Peace. I haven’t written at my usual pace for about a year now, and at least half of that time, I wasn’t writing at all. For the past month, I’ve been slowly getting back into the book, maybe a few hundred words a day. I figured this might help me shift into a higher gear.

It sort of worked. In the first five days of November, I did 6,474 words. I averaged more than a thousand words/day. It’s the best writing streak I’ve had since 2018.

Then, of course, I hit a point in the story where I needed to know the backstory of an entire planet, build an alien culture or two, figure out the motivations of two ambiguous villains … basically, yesterday and today were 0-wordcount days as I tried to figure out the next chunk of the book.

That’s disappointing after a good five-day streak, but I don’t want to ignore the significance of those five days. I was able to focus more, and get closer to being the working writer I was a year ago. I’m not there yet, but it’s progress. And as I noted on Facebook, Terminal Peace now includes the phrase “ranivorous cleavage,” so you know, that’s a thing.

I’m still brainstorming and making notes, but hopefully I’ll get back to producing actual words tomorrow.

Good luck to everyone taking NaNoWriMo on this year!

Comments

[offcntr]

ranivorous cleavage

frog-eating?

[jimhines]

Yep

[themis1]

All words are good :-) And sometimes stopping to think is also good. So far I have googled 'how does core drilling work' and 'sunburn or sunstroke?' I'm sure there will be even weirder look-ups to come ...

I'm looking forward to 'terminal peace', when it's ready to fly.

[okrablossom]

I am so glad to hear you've found a way back into writing! :)

[zeeth_kyrah]

I'm pretty sure any words of world-building you write would count. I'd count them, anyway, even though they're not directly part of the finished novel. They're part of how you got there.

[laurenthemself]

I'm taking my first year off NaNo since 2003, but you may see me around the forums if you visit because I'm a volunteer moderator as Lauren E. Mitchell.