Day 6 NaNoWriMo – An Interesting Mix (Including Tips on Planning)

So far tonight I have been on the computer for an hour. I have completed lots of background reading and research and have just popped into Blogland.

I will come back and edit this post later to include today’s word count – I am hoping for 1667 but I am EXTREMELY tired – and have spent 20 minutes constantly yawning. I could easily go to bed now but I would wake up at 4 and be too tired for work… so I am hoping to make it past cooking/eating dinner and a few hours of writing.

Day 6 NaNo – Starters

After a LONG, HARD day and a very late night I knew it was going to be a long night for this evening’s write. This became a dead cert when I logged on at 6:40pm and found it had taken me 10minutes to get the laptop to fire up correctly! Some glitch or other.

I then spent an hour researching through some note booked ideas – I struggled yesterday with the direction of my story (due to not planning thoroughly – which is a must for all writer’s) – especially those who participate in NaNoWriMo – I am an unwitting pantster because the end of October was so busy I pushed NaNo to the back of my mind and spent a day making the decision whether to do it or not!

So tonight I address the issue of planning.

For those of you also flying by the seat of your pants or struggling to know how to frame your writing before attempting a draft there may be some useful golden nuggets in this post. READ ON!

I completed some background reading and got a mini plan of the next part of the novella drafted. Ready to start tonight’s writing. I have also compiled a list of things I need to do;

writing down my characters goals, keep these in mind as I write the remaining 39000+ words.
List characters key strengths and
List characters vulnerabilities
Know how my character(s) evolve?

(There is so much writing that will never appear in the final manuscript, but needs to be in place so you get a true sense of the story and the world it comes from. Like all the unseen rehearsals before a play.)

The positive outcome of tonight’s research was I have found I am not too far from producing something of along the right lines (no pun!) which is good because some doubt set in this evening and that’s never good for productivity!

My hour of research has been a worthwhile activity and I am glad I have spent the time doing it – now I have to write my NaNo for the day = 1667 words here I come!

It’s now 8:00 pm the tea is on – the washing up is soaking and I am ready to see how far I can get into the word count (hoping for 800 words in this first session!)

HOT NEWS JUST IN

Part 2 – Word Count

I only managed 500 words before dinner – and since that have spent the evening writing. At one point I did think to myself – It was spending all night working that made me change my career choice this year, then I thought about loving what you do and how that can be more special than just work and how this is what I wanted. A regular guaranteed income and time to write…

I managed 789 at next count (seemed like a lot more) then I broke 12oo and forced myself to carry on – I will be working tomorrow and Friday and do not want to lose the edge I have on myself being ahead (knowing my monthly schedule).

I managed 1544 at next count and thought COME ON!

(Inner cheerleader- ‘stop counting, keep writing!’)

So I did and when I totalled tonight’s write I managed 1963 …

of course my inner cheerleader started harping on about how close that was to 2000 – to which my mind replied;

‘yes, and look at the clock 22:20, that’s so close to my bed time!’