Posted on by Destiny · 3 Comments

The NaNo Diaries: Finishing 13 Days Early

What?!

Did that just really happen? Yes! Yes it did! I finished writing 50,000 words 13 days ahead of schedule.

Just in case anybody doubts my literary prowess.

I never in a million years thought I would be able to type my own work of fiction in under 30 days. This is so unbelievable. Of course, I have been working part-time and I have been able to spend a lot more time dedicated to writing this year than any other.

The rest of the month will be spent on polishing up the work I’ve just written. I have hopes on getting this book traditionally published if I can. I’ll walk you through the rest of this process if you want me to.

I’m so exhausted but so happy it hurts. I can’t stop smiling.

Posted on by Destiny

The NaNo Diaries: End of Week 1

Day #5

     The first week is wrapping up for National Novel Writing Month. Personally, I have met much success in my writing. I came off cold at first, with Day #1 offering me no time to sit down and type out any word count for the day. I was off to a wonderful start from the starting line. Preparation time was rough as well, as I was unable to write up a usable outline in time prior to the start of November. I love writing outlines, and I highly recommend writing an outline.

     I was having a hard time at first coming up with a good idea to take me through the month as well. In my mind, I had strict criteria that my book would have to meet prior to me starting. I wanted a book which:

  1. Stands Alone – This idea of having a sole book instead of a series went out the window almost entirely by the end of the second day as I wrote drafts to three stories. I have a bad habit of almost always coming up with series ideas as I write a novel; there is so much to explore.
  2. Low Fantasy Fiction – I didn’t want to get involved too much in world building this year, and preferred some sort of realistic fiction. I was leaning hard on the idea of horror because of writing so much about the genre in October. Horror is a great genre which has so much potential to eventually write, but this book is not going to be the one.
  3. A New Idea – I have so many half-baked ideas of novels sitting in files within my computer. I had no interest in re-constructing one of those novels for this year’s writing challenge. I wanted to focus my attention on something new entirely and then go from there.

Instead I am working on a fantasy novel which will potentially be in a series, depending on how far 60,000 words will get me. I will be limiting myself to keep under 65,000 (Game of Thrones length this will not be). This novel has been floating around for at least a decade and can be found in many forms on my computer or in notebooks under my bed. I have instead deconstructed it over many times, using the characters as my own personal stock characters for writing instead. I have used these characters to write about whenever I hadn’t found anything else to inspire me. Just short ideas or scenes here or there, so it would be about time for me to create something based solely on them.  

How is everyone else’s week of writing going?

Posted on by Destiny

The NaNo Diaries

7 Days Before November

I should be putting the finishing touches on the article I had chicken scratched down this weekend. My new publishing schedule for this blog had indicated to put time away to do that right after I had cleaned out my inbox that has way too many emails in the main box. I’m not very good at cleaning, and my emails seem to back up until I clean them out towards the end of the year. In this conglomerate I find an unopened email dated a couple months ago from the National Novel Writing Month website. 

NanoWriMo. 

The hellish writing triathlon I used to participate in on a yearly basis. Why had I ever stopped? I would assume it had correlated with leaving my parents house the first time in 2015 and I had to face the responsibilities that would entail. I had remembered how I had once spent almost an entire Saturday in high school trying to catch up to my writing timeline after spending 4 days not writing a single word of my story. I felt accomplished after completing my word count for that week. I was a superwoman when I had written over my goal. I completed my word count one year a few days ahead of time and yet I still kept going, only for the sheer enjoyment that meeting my goals had given to me. 

I want that thirst. 

I want to create again for the sheer enjoyment of madness. 

Despite everything else that’s going on in my life right now, I’m going to try once again to compete in National Novel Writing Month. I have outlines out the wahzoo. Working part-time has left me with the most time that I’ve ever had in my adult life to plan and structure my days out the way I want them. Let’s do it.

I’m going to try to keep a diary of my progress on my blog to keep a continuous update on how I’m doing. I created a new account, feel free to follow my progress on the NaNo site by clicking here. If you’re planning on participating as well, feel free to add me and we can become writing buddies. 

I appreciate you. Happy writing.