Keep Calm...

Another 2017, making 16,257 - that's 27% done!

I hope tomorrow to have some time to go back over the first few chapters and tidy them up a bit - there's one scene I already know needs to be told from another POV, for example. I know that it's not the NaNo way to edit as you go, but I'm ahead of schedule, and anything that makes the revision process more bearable has to be good, as far as I'm concerned!

Right. off to tackle the ironing instead.

A little bit behind here, but not with the writing!

As of yesterday, I was at 12,087 and plan for another 2,000 today.

But not until we've been on an adventure with a kite for the daughter, a nice lunch for us (Waffle House!) for a belated anniversary celebration, and got the belly pork in the oven for this evening...

Also been plotting a new story - one I can't wait to write. But it has to get in line!

Forgot to update yesterday, mostly due to sleep deprevation. I did, however, hit my target - just!
8013 words, and still on schedule.

More later, when I get to do some writing today.

Thanks to the daughter having a nice long nap this lunchtime, I am now ahead of schedule on wordcount, but still a little behind on plot. Since I'm venturing into London this evening, just in time to catch the end of the tube strike, I think I'll take my laptop along with me for when I inevitably get stuck somewhere. At least if I'm writing, I might not be so cross about the delay...

Day Three Stats:
Starting word count: 4057
Wordcount at 16:00: 6576

Well, it's the second day, and I'm still on schedule. For me, that might just be a NaNo miracle.

I'm trying something a little new for the plotting and outlining of my novel this year. I started out by using PBW's block plotting method to help me hammer out the basics, then I split my story into thirty chunks, each with a sentence or two detailing what needs to happen. They're not scenes, because several of them include more than one scene. But as long as I write a chunk a day, and average around 2000 words or more per chunk, then I'm on target.

I'm about to stop for lunch, and so far I've hit my 4000 words, but am only two thirds of the way through the chunk. It's not a problem, I'll finish it tonight, and hopefully it will make up for some of the lighter chunks, when 2000 words would be stretching the action further than it wants to go.

So, lunch, then an afternoon playing with the daughter (shortly to return from nursery) and doing housey things, then an evening drinking peppermint tea and utilising Write Or Die to get my last 1500 or so words. So far, so calm.

Of course, I'm only writing this down so that in a couple of weeks, when I'm 10,000 words behind on my wordcount, my outline has been tossed, rewritten and tossed again, and I'm mainlining espresso, I can look back and cackle at my early, misplaced optimism.

November is here at last, which means it's time for NaNoWriMo!

I love National Novel Writing Month. Some years I use it to write an idea I love but will never get around to otherwise. Some years I use it to write something I've fallen behind on. Sometimes it's just great to kickstart an idea that stalled in the planning stages - somehow the deadline makes the plot fall in to place.

More than anything, it's a great excuse to spend thirty days concentrating on the writing. I have an excuse to beg off country walks or housework. I can say to my husband, "I need you to watch your daughter for the morning - I need to hit my word count!"

This year, I've stocked the freezer full of homemade meals to see us through no-cooking November, and I've got a fantastic headstart on the Christmas shopping. The house is in order, CBeebies is on the telly, and I am ready to write.

Unfortunately, the daughter spent most of the night awake, and I've had the Nina and the Neurons song stuck in my head since one am. Daughter's still all out of sorts, and wants to cuddle on the sofa (most unlike her) and keeps dragging me away from the keyboard.

And at this point, this post is longer than my NaNo novel so far...

That's right. I'd forgotten the other huge advantage of NaNoWriMo - perfecting the art of procrastination. I always get so much done when I'm avoiding writing my novel!

Getting back to the manuscript right now.