Week 2 of Nanowrimo has just ended and the words are still pouring out. I know that there’s a wall approaching – I can see it in the distance, but every time that I get close to it, it retreats…thankfully.
So, to the word count. It’s growing and, as I write this late on Tuesday afternoon, has just passed the 28000 word mark. I’m well ahead of the nanowrimo graph – which is a grand thing indeed, especially given that I’m off to New Zealand to visit a friend this weekend.
Nanowrimo Word Count – Week 2
Day 8 2178
Day 9 1268
Day 10 2025
Day 11 2780
Day 12 2061
Day 13 3013
Day 14 2094
How am I finding time to write?
Yes, I’m still working my corporate gig, and yes, I’m still fulfilling my social responsibilities. How am I doing it? The story I’m telling me has a grip on me and I’m making use of every single spare moment. I suspect that if I wasn’t enjoying the story as much as I am, the words would not be coming as easily as they have done. It’s still feeling as though it’s writing itself.
Thankfully we’ve finished binging on Season 1 of Designated Survivor, and we’re not going to start Season 2 until December. Even more thankfully, the next season of The Crown isn’t coming to Netflix until December. I don’t think that I could have resisted that sort of temptation.
I’m not adding any new content to the astro site for now, and I’m going a tad easy on myself regarding blogging in general. I’m also not walking as much as I usually do.
I’m writing at the beginning and end of the day and I’m sneaking in a quick thirty minutes at lunchtime when I can. It’s enough to keep the word count ticking over. In short, I’m pretty much writing and working….or working and writing…you get the idea.
Oh, and the herb garden needs weeding and mulching…badly.
And the story?
It continues to change from my original premise. I’m about to do something pretty dreadful to my characters, and because I like them so much I’m having second thoughts about it – and delaying writing that particular scene. I figure though, that if I like them and hate myself for what I’m about to do, my readers will also feel the same – and that, I hope, is a good thing. Besides, this one scene will take this novel from a romance more into the realm of general fiction. Unusually for me, I have absolutely no idea at this point about how it’s going to end.
Although I have a better idea of the motivations of my protagonists than I usually do at this point, I haven’t yet got a great sense of place. This story is set mostly in Sydney – on the North Shore – and partially in New Zealand. The NZ part is easy, but my Sydney chapters definitely need…more…something? More traffic perhaps? Seriously though, much of that depth will come through in the second draft. For now I’m concentrating on getting the words out.
What else?
On Sunday (day 12) I spent all day at a workshop about writing food into your story with the fabulous Josephine Moon. We didn’t just learn about food, we learnt about how food, flavour and fragrance – and the words we use to describe these things – can add layers to the story. That, and reading the current edition of Salt (a locally produced free magazine) gave me some light-bulb moments – including a possible career choice for my protagonist, Kate. Again, that’s the sort of colour that really comes through after the first draft is done – and provides a truly valid reason for disappearing down the rabbit hole of pinterest.
As the story progresses, so too does the playlist. To the early Midnight Oil and Goanna I’ve added some Vance Joy, Gotye, Ed Sheeran, and a little Adele.
What about you? If you’re also doing nanowrimo, how are you going with it? Will you have more words at the end of November than you did at the beginning of the month?