NaNo Novel Writing Update - Day 9

At the beginning of day 9, I’m at 14,352 words on my novel. The goal is 50,000 by November 30th.

Here’s a day by day summary of how I got this far.

Day 2

I’m up to 4382 words so far. Today was rougher than day 1 due to a poor night’s sleep, but it’s early in the game, so if I’m not as productive now, I can catch up.

Day 3 -5

I wrote steadily each of these days, gradually losing my cushion of extra words, but not falling behind.

Day 6

Wrote this to Mom:

The novel thing is going steady for me, but not stellar. Today I had time in the morning to write, but I stared at a blank page for a while and then decided to do some devotion time instead. If I don’t write today, I will fall behind on my daily word count. But I might let it go for today, in hopes that something great will occur to me for tomorrow.

Yesterday I wrote a scene with a new character that could potentially change the whole direction of the book. My original idea doesn’t seem to be working very well even though I’m telling myself not to worry about it and not to judge it.

We’ll see if the day off gets the juices flowing again. I might look at some fiction writing books tonight to see if I find any advice there.

Additionally I keep feeling the tug to write a book about what and why I believe, something I could give away to friends.

I’m praying for God’s inspiration and direction for my writing and for whatever else He wants me to do.

Later that evening I sent Mom this email:

I ended up grabbing some writing time this evening after all.

What I wrote was different angle on a scene that had been alluded to in a conversation, so I didn’t move the story ahead very much. I only visualized the scene in more detail and from a different POV.

I got 1418 words out of this exercise.

Since this novel in a month thing allows for exploratory stabs at a novel, I think I’m keeping to the intended goals.

My hope is that the action will move forward some more tomorrow. I might have to get my character into an accident or find a stray dog or bump into an old flame. Something to stir up some sparks of action.

Day 7:

I got 1,428 words today.

Had to write in the morning and in the evening to get up to that number.

I ended today on the verge of a pivotal scene, so I would have something exciting (I hope) to write tomorrow morning.

This is by no means the novel I set out to write, but I’m following the characters and the plot ideas as they come, so it is organic at least.


Day 8:

Having a “pivotal” scene to write in the morning was a good strategy. I got 1362 words out of the scene this morning.

I really need to squeeze in more writing time if I ever want to get ahead, but at least I’m not behind for the 30th deadline.

As write through this second week, I need to keep looking for pivotal scenes, keep the characters in “action” where at least they are doing something to effect each other, and toward the end of the week I need to start dreaming up an ending of some kind.

Day 9:

Another day, and what do I do?
Waste my novel writing time updating my blog!