Day 29

So close to reaching 50,000 (4,557 short), and I wanted to get my word count validated before everyone else did and shut down the Nanowrimo servers, so I went for it and got my word count in today.

The story is nearing the end (probably a few chapters to go), so it’s not a finished novel, but I did manage to write 50,000 words during November, which is a vast improvement over previous months. Not to mention that this novel was completely and totally and utterly PANTSED. Horribly uncomfortable, but I am muddling my way through it.

I told a friend about reaching the 50k mark and ‘winning’ Nanowrimo:

Friend: “So you had an idea you’d been thinking about for awhile and wrote that?”

Me:  <laugh> “Nope. I started with nothing — no idea, no character, not even a genre.”

Friend: “But it’s something you would normally write, right?”

Me: <laugh> “This is something I never would have written. I mean, who writes a story with souls, neurochips, talking dogs, a ton of cursing, Astoria, luxury cars, and bacon?”

Friend: <seriously> “Who wouldn’t want to read that?”

Yeah, that’s a good friend.

Overall, I’m feeling pleased about the word count and for pantsing all of it, but I haven’t finished the novel yet, so it has me also feeling unsettled because I’ve still got some work to do to finish the story. But I will finish it. Most likely next week.

20″ 296 words

40″ 1032 words

60″ 590 words

25″ 616 words

45″ 1029 words

15″ 33 words

20″ 333 words

60″ 1203 words

TOTALS SO FAR: 2500″ (41.7 hours) & 50,575 words

 

Day 30

Muse took a vacation, so I went back to my pre-Nanowrimo writing practice of writing off of a prompt for ten minutes. It was a little rough going, but felt good to get back to basics. Going forward, I will probably stick with my previous method of using the story starts that come out of writing practice for developing into complete stories — still pantsing, but with a bit more of a foundation to work from.

Thanks for hanging in there with me! Questions? Let me know in the comments.