Sunday, November 14, 2010

NaNoWriMo - Part Two - Status report

It is now halfway through the month of writing a fifty thousand novel in thirty days and I’m ... well I’m pretty much on target. I've added a "widget" that shows my progress so far. Yellow are days I've been under the word count, orange days I've been really under, light green means I've made my count, darker green are my catch up days.

As I write this I’ve got about 20K written and by Sunday evening I should be well ahead of schedule. The problem with having a day job is that while sometimes you can do 1667 words in an evening, more often you have to rely on the weekends to write more than the minimum word count in order to make your numbers.

This is particularly true since in addition to the day job, I'm also coordinating a category in my local RWA chapter’s GOTCHA contest, and dancing in a local ballet school’s production of The Nutcracker, performances being Thanksgiving weekend, so I have rehearsals some evenings and weekend days. I play Grandmother and Mother Ginger, which I’ve done for close to 18 years now. And of course there is Thanksgiving, which I’m probably going out of town for. So I have to get the bulk of the book written during the next two weeks before things get really crazy.

In short, if I can make the word count, anyone can. And I have for two years running completed NaNoWriMo with the same set of roadblocks.

The story of my book is still evolving. I still have the vampire on the cruise ship and the sexy werewolf who wants to be her companion but I got rid of the extra guy and am focusing on giving the pair a mystery to solve. I’m glossing over some parts that will be filled in later on. Sometimes I’m in the mood to write sex scenes and sometimes I write “There is a lot of sex here and she’s the one in control this time...” which works for the rough draft. That’s the beauty of a draft, you don’t need to fill in all the details quite yet. What you want is the basis of the story, and you want to write it quickly so that the plot gets solidified. The “good stuff” can come later.

So I need to keep this short because I have about a thousand more words to write today before I can call it quits. Happy writing everyone!

Cheers,
Janet Miller/Cricket Starr

6 comments:

Jill James said...

I kinda fell out of Nano this year with galleys arriving to go over and getting another story edited to turn in, will probably Nano here at the end of November and into December.

Paisley Kirkpatrick said...

Good luck with getting your word count done. I have never done the NaNo so can't imagine the stress of having to pump those words out so quickly day after day. Hope you make it through to the end successfully again this year.

Luanna Stewart said...

I'm having a blast writing my NaNo story. I've thrown all the rules, preconceptions,expectations out the window, and just going where the story leads me. And because I"m writing so quickly, I seem to be developing something of an actual plot LOL!

I've got 25K so far. I want to get a little ahead of schedule to allow for traveling later in the month.

Good luck with your word count.
Write on!

Nicola McKenna said...

Janet, your numbers look fab, keep up the good work! I too am in NaNo, really enjoying it too. There is such a degree of comfort knowing that a first draft can accommodate those little notes. Best of luck this year.

Mona Risk said...

Janet, you are amazing. How do you create time to do all that?

I have never done the Nano but I have been in a group challenge, and wrote a single title in three months, with 5,000 to 7,000 words every night. Of course I missed some nights and made up the next day.

Stephanie Burkhart said...

Janet, that's a really cool widget. I usually use the stats page on the NaNoWriMo website. Congrats on your word count and keep up the good work. I'm at 24K now, hope to type up a bunch of stuff later on today.

Smiles
Steph