Post-NaNoWriMo

I haven't written much at all since the end of November. I did need a break - I will admit to that, but now I need to get back to writing and I'm in two minds.

I had always intended to write some more scenes in December and then edit the scenes into the right order in January, ready to re-write them in February and March. Now I'm wondering if this is the right thing to do. Most of the story is there, but it does need organizing and bringing together.

I'm hald convinced that I should reorganize now and start the re-wrting in January. Trouble I know I don't stick with my descisions, which is exactly what I'm doing. In both cases, some scenes won't make it into the next draft and new scenes will have to be added.

I just feel, right now, that I'm writing stuff that won't be going anywhere and it would be a better use of my time actually fixing the scenes in order and seeing what is missing. As I have never managed to go much beyond the first draft, I think this is a barrier I need to cross.

So it looks like I'm going to start the reorganisation and then write more scenes. If I can do this and end up with a half decent and complete story, I will be happy.

Day 29

It's been quite a good day, though for some reason I found it impossible to produce a capital letter on the first try. I still managed to write 2503 words, bringing my grand total to 58514 words.

Writing was definitely easier today. No idea why. Tomorrow I'm hoping to add about another 2000 words so that my total in the validator reaches above 60k. I know that the validator and word counts from the editor don't exactly match, so if I can be 500 to 1000 words over I should be safe.

I might do a bit more tonight, I will see how things work out. It's going to be a busy evening so there may not be time. Still there's still tomorrow.

Day 28

I have written 2482 words today and my grand total is 56011 words. I'm on track to reach 60k if nothing bad happens. If something does come up, well I'm beyond 50k so I've won anyway. And yes it is backed up.

I will try to write another 500 words today if at all possible. If it is possible, I'll try to update here tonight. I will update NaNoWriMo.

Oh and I'm still not at the end. I was hoping to make it before the 30th, but now I'm not so sure. The ending seems to be getting further away at the moment. Having said that, I'm not sure how much of the scenes I'm writing now will make it into the next draft as the story seems to be shifting direction.

However, maybe this new direction is the right one, and the previous scenes will go. Well I'm making no decisions now, that will have to wait for the new year.

(Updated with the extra words)

Day 24

I jsut found out that I made a mistake in my spreadsheet and I only had two days when I wrote nothing instead of the three I had been claiming. It may only be a small improvement, but it makes me feel better.

Today I wrote 3027 words, bringing my total to 53529 words.

Tomorrow I am out all day, so I'm not likely to write very much. I will try to write something in the evening, even if it's only 19 words - my minimum above zero word count in one day.

Starting to write the end now. I should hit 60k, I think. Still it's definitely more difficult to write now. I think it's the over-50k-syndrome.

At the end of November I will take a short break, before continuing with writing scenes - some scenes I still have in summary. Hopefully I will still get everything I want written before the end of the year. Then all I have to do is make the scenes into a book...

Day 22

Yesterday I wrote 5019 words, bring my total to 47543 words. If things go well today, I will break the 50k mark. If that doesn't happen today it will happen tomorrow, but I think today. I'm very happy about this.

I think I will end up with about 60000 words by November 30th. Less than I originally hoped for, but more than I've ever written during NaNoWriMo. The story is interesting as are the characters. This one I'm really going to try to transform into a readable book that can be submitted to agents.

I will probably start with writing some more scenes before I start cutting, rewriting and reorganizing the ones I have. At the end I hope to have a book of about 75000 words.

This year has gone so much better than any other year to date.

Day 21 update

I managed to write a grand total of 19 words yesterday. That is pathetic, but at least I wrote something. I did not update NaNoWriMo.

Let's hope today goes better. Trouble is I know I'm going to be busy again, because of the trip last week. Should be quieter from Wednesday onwards, so my word count should increase dramatically then.

Next few days...

I will be leaving for a business trip in 5 hours time. I will try to at least write the minimum between then and now, but no guarantees as I have to prepare for the trip first. Also I will have much less time to write. I'll be working about 12 hours a day and then there's the 7 hour drive each way (today and Friday).

And yes it's by car, so no chance to write on the way. I am not happy about this, but sometimes you just have to do things you don't like doing and I haven't had to go on a business trip since the summer. I know it's not that bad, but right now I keep thinking 'why me?'

Day 15

I've written 5494 words so far today, bringing my total to 37521 words. I should break 50k in the next three days, if I keep up this rate. I probably won't write any more today. I'm going quite fast, which was never the intention I meant to go at a more steady pace, so that I didn't get lost.

However having said that, the story is going very well and is on track. I'm in the middle section at the moment, which is good and where it should be. I don't think I'll make it to 80000 words. I might make it to 75000 words, which isn't too bad. Anything over 50k is a bonus and I'll be happy.

I think this is my best year yet. I had a rough outline and some subplots, a good storyline, and interesting characters. It's not turning out how I originally thought it would, but it is staying inside the broad lines and the characters are speaking for themselves.

I hope this continues.

Day 14

Today was a good day. So far, I've added 4765 words, bringing my grand total to 31521 words. I'm hoping to write some more later, but I wanted to put an update here first. So I have less that 20000 words to go to make the 50k. In that respect, I'm ahead of the game.

I'm slightly behind my optimistic goal, which called for 3000 words per day. I'm currently on a 2251 words per day average. I did know I wouldn't write everyday, but this is still lower than I was hoping for at this stage. I would like to write another 500 words today and then write a similar amount tomorrow.

I have to go on a business trip on Wednesday, so I am unlikely to be able to keep up the word count. I'll try to compensate the following weekend, but if last weekend is any indication that won't happen. Still it might...

The weekend

went badly. I wrote 240 words on Saturday and 19 0 on Sunday (apparently I didn't save my 19 words). I didn't bother to update NaNoWriMo. I knew I would have off days. Still my total is now 26756 words, which means I'm still on target to reach 50k before the end of the month.

I am, of course, behind on my goal of 80k by the end of November, but that was wishful thinking. There are just too many things on my plate for me to keep up with writing 3000 words every day. Still I'm hoping I'll do better today.

The worst is that from Wednesday I will be away on a business trip. I should be able to get something written, but it's unlikely I will be anywhere near my target for those 3 days. I'll try to catch up over the weekend, but if this weekend was anything to go by, that just won't happen.

Day 7

Due to a rush at the end of the day, I never updated my blog. So yesterday I wrote 2314 words. Bringing my total word count to 19523 words. If I was writing 3000 words per day I should be at 21000 words at this time. I am instead averaging 2789 words per day, which is not bad.

So far I have written every single day, which is also a record. I don't think I will manage every day in November, but I'm hoping to get close. I know I won't write on either the 18th or the 25th as I have a trip that will happen on one of those two days. Date is yet to be fixed.

Happy. Happy. Joy. Joy.

An update

I haven't been here for a while. A death followed by a health scare meant I just didn't have the energy to update the blog. Sorry.

Now all of that is over and I'm sort of catching up at work, so it is time to get back to writing or at least writing about not writing. I have my story. I know what's wrong with what I have written. Now all I need to do is make it right....

This should be interesting. I am attempting to get into the habit of writing every day, even if it is only for 5 minutes or so. I would love to write for an hour a day, but I'm not going to run before I can walk.

So time to finish the urgent stuff for work and then I will write. At least one sentence...

More outlining

I'm now up to chapter 8 on the outline re-write and only 18 days until NaNoWriMo begins. Time to pick up the pace and really get these outlines ready. There are 28 chapters in total and if I can write 3000 words per chapter, I'll end up with a book with 84000 words.

I'm really looking forward to the start of NaNoWriMo and I'm getting a little nervous.I just want November 1st to be here.

And welcome to all the new people following my blog. I wish you all good luck in your NaNoWriMo attempts.

Update on NaNoWriMo outline

Instead of continuing with the outline of the previous NaNoWriMo story, I picked up the new outline again. I wrote a character list and a quick synopsis, which misses a few points. I did it out of my head and not referring to the chapter outlines I had already written.

I did that so I could see how much of the story I could remember. It's amazing how many little changes crept in. After writing the half page synopsis, I started on Chapter 1 outline. Very little changed, but names were added and a couple of minor points were clarified.

Now I'm up to Chapter 3 and it's taking longer than I thought it would. I guess I shouldn't be surprised really. As in this round I'm making sure that there is consistency in everything, through names to places etc. I know in the first outline some characters changed sex to make them fit better in that particular scene, now they are fixed and hence some scenes need to be redone.

Consistency...I'm not very good at that.

Update on outline

So the second outline is now at chapter nine. I wrote five more yesterday. I'm hoping to reach thirty in total as with the previous outline. This is for the simple reason that then I need to write about 3000 words per chapter in order to produce a 90000 word novel.

It doesn't actually mean the finished book will have 30 chapters, but it might do. I'll make that decision when I have actually written it. I'll work on the current outline until Sunday, then I'll switch back to me NaNoWriMo outline. Once that is smartened up and correct, and if there is time, I'll switch back to this outline.

I actually think working on more than one project is helping me. That might sound a bit weird, but I seem to be able to concentrate better on one after I've completely taken a break from it for a while. I came up with some pretty good subplots for the old novel in a very short time once I restarted. I'd had real problems before.

I hope to reach about the halfway mark, before I have to switch back to the NaNoWriMo story. And I hope to have the outline finished before NaNoWriMo starts.

Update

I have now outlined 12 chapters. Not bad. I expect to end up with about 30, so I'm over one third done. I do need to go back and edit a little, plus I still have to name some of the characters.

Time wise, I'm doing well. I should have the complete outline finished and revised before Novemeber 1st and NaNoWriMo. I don't think I'll have time for the second outline I was hoping to write. It would have been nice to have written that too, but it's taking me longer than I thought to write the first one. However, it should save me a lot of time later on as all the kinks should be ironed out now rather than later.

I still haven't worked out how to change the spell checker language, so the posts are still not checked. It's a little bizar, because I do have English selected as the language, but the spell checker seems to be ignoring that.

More writing!

Yes, I have actually been writing. I now have four chapters outlined and I've noticed something. I keep changing things. Even now in outline and even though I'm only at chapter four. One of my side characters started off female, became male and has just reverted to female.

Not very consistant, but that is the problem. I'm going to make her female and keep her that way. If something in the plot/story doesn't work unless she becomes a he, then it's the plot/story that will change not the sex of the character.

I'm writing very slowly at the moment. Much slower than I would like, but I only have myself to blame. Time to pick up the pace. If I don't I won't be ready for November and NaNoWriMo. I'm only outlined four chapters and there looks like there'll be about thirty in total. At this rate I need thirteen weeks and there is only nine weeks left.

And I need to create a character list. I don't have names yet, just things like MC, sister, client etc. That will help fix the characters and stop them from morphing at will. Time to find a binder.

And this post has not gone through the spellchecket. For some reason the language for the spellchecker has been set to Dutch and I can't find out how to change it. The language setting, that I did find, was set to English, so I have no idea at the moment how to change it back again. Very annoying.

So slow

Not doing so well. No surprise there. I just don't seem to have the energy, but that's just an excuse. I also forgot to recharge my mini laptop. That's an excuse too. Not to mention that not plugging it in is probably an unconscious way of avoiding writing.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Trouble is I know myself very well and I know I'm doing my best to avoid writing. I do similar things to avoid housework too. I am lazy.

Tonight, as soon as I get home, I will plug in the mini laptop. I will. And I will write using pen and paper while it's recharging.

Today

I wrote a thousand words in an hour. OK not the fastest rate in the world perhaps, but I did get interrupted every now and then. At least that's my excuse. The point is that it was easy today. Very easy. As soon as I had a free moment I sat down and wrote and the words just came. I wish everyday could be like this.

If I keep this up I might even get a manuscript finished...

Back to writing.

I'm writing again. Slowly at the moment, but I have added some words. I think I need to start again. Not right from the beginning, but start a new draft. This will be the 3rd draft. Let's see how many things I change this time.