Month: November 2022

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that I was going to try something new as far as my word count is concerned. I was going to try to write five pages during my first writing session of the day, which will be after I update my word count and before I go to bed. Then… During my usual writing session (after 9:30 PM), I’ll try to write the rest of my 10-page quota.

Well… As the title of this post indicates, I came up short — by 410 words. 🙁 Instead of writing 2,500 words (ten 250-word pages), I only wrote a little over eight pages. I think the reason I came up short was two-fold:

First, I didn’t write the full five pages before I went to bed “last night”, and

second, I didn’t start writing early enough today.

Oh, well… I’m sure it’s going to take some time to get used to the new “catch up” writing schedule! However, the good news is that this new writing schedule maintains my “Unplugged Sundays” — though I might try to do some writing the old-fashioned way: pen on paper in order to prevent myself from falling too far behind to catch up.

Speaking of getting caught up, I did a bit of figurin’ after updating my word count, and I figured that I’d be able to get back onto a NaNoWriMo pace by Thanksgiving AND get AHEAD on Black Friday. Of course, this may depend on what we end up doing for the holiday. If I’m able to get my writing done on Thanksgiving AND maintain the 10-page quota I started today, I should be able to cross the 50,000-word “finish line” A DAY EARLY — on the 29th of November. If I continue at this accelerated pace, I might end NaNoWriMo with a grand total of…

(Wait for it…)

52,639 words.

That would be SO COOL, but only time will time if I’ll be successful in this endeavor! So… If you’re curious about whether I’ll be able to maintain this rather grueling pace, you’re welcome to check back as often as you’d like!

Even though I managed to write more words today, the word-count graph on my official NaNoWriMo stats looks like it has been flat-lining for five days! Almost a week!! Ugh!!!

By the end of today (Election Day 2022), I should have written a grand total of…

(Wait for it…)

13.336 words.

Sadly, I only have a grand total of 5,449 words. Consequently, I’m a whoppin’ 7,887 words behind! (Like that number, though, because it’s a PALINDROME!)

All is NOT lost, though. Tomorrow, I’ll be starting a new tactic: writing TEN 250-word pages in a single day. I’m going to be doing this by splitting the ten-page quota in half — writing five pages after updating my word count (read: before I go to bed) and then writing another five pages in the evening when I normally do my writing. We’ll see how that goes…

By this, I’m referring to today’s NaNoWriMo word count. Due to a variety of factors (that, I think, shall remain nameless), I only managed to write less than 100 words before midnight today. 🙁

The past couple of days haven’t been a complete loss, though. Yesterday was one of my “Unplugged Sundays” (the day of the week when I try to remain “unplugged” — by not using any electronics), so I didn’t get on the computer to “meet my quota”. However, I did spend much of the day researching the main historical event upon which one of my NaNoWriMo short stories will be based; created a timeline of this historical event, AND, most importantly, tried to figure out how my fictional characters will fit in with — and be affected by — the event. Today, I did a bit more research, specifically, about one of the “real life” people that was affected by the historical event in a major way and with whom my characters will interact.

Because I am now a whoppin’ 6,429 words behind a NaNo pace, I REALLY need to figure out how I can get caught up while maintaining my “Unplugged Sundays”. At this point, I think I’m going to start putting in TWO writing sessions per day:

The first one will be after midnight since I’m a “night owl”. Haven’t been doing this one since I’ve been trying to get all of my writing done before midnight — in order to update my NaNoWriMo word count for the day.

The second one will be in the evening — when I’ve currently been doing all of my writing. This should allow me to “double up” on my writing and thus, help me get caught up — and maybe even ahead — in word count.

Well… That’s the plan now. Only time will tell how effective this plan will be in the long run. Wish me luck ‘cuz I’m definitely going to need all I can get in order to “win” this year’s NaNoWriMo event!

Just when I thought I was getting myself onto a “NaNo pace” (of 1,667 words per day), I came skidding to a halt. Well… Maybe not quite a complete halt (because I did manage to write some words today), but not nearly as many words as I had hoped to write — split between two different writing sessions. These two writing sessions are part of this month’s plan for tackling NaNoWriMo. The plan involves “putting my writing first” by writing after my “wake up” and “morning” routines (the latter of which includes writing a “Pages” entry, which is actually a part of my writing routine) AND before I tackle “the three tasks” of the day. Sounds simple, right? Sadly, it’s not so easy to put into practice, especially since I’ve discovered that I’m VERY easily distracted — often bouncing from task to task. “Practice makes better” as I always say.

Anyway… As I mentioned in the “Important note” in the post with that beautiful image (courtesy of NaNoWriMo), I will be updating my NaNoWriMo progress with posts to my online “Journal”, which is where I hope this post will end up after I push the “Publish” button.

In these “Journal” posts, I’ll be sharing with you my daily progress during NaNoWriMo. This will include the words I managed to write each day as well as my total word count, using the following format:

Day # Daily word count (total word count)

AND they’ll have the current day’s totals at the top and the older entries further down. By the end of the month, this part of the posts will be quite long.

Day 4 – 1,084 (4,726)

Day 3 — 1,768 (3,642 total words)

Day 2 — 871 words (1,875 — just a bit over one day’s needed word count of 1,667 words)

Day 1 — 1,004 words (1,004 total words)

The main event of NaNoWriMo has arrived, but I am nowhere near ready for it. DON’T count me out, though! I have a way of bouncing back — frequently at the last minute. “Better late than never!” I always say.

For this year’s NaNoWriMi, I’ve decided to be a rebel — by writing a series of short stories that I’m hoping will read like a novel. As I mentioned in my (failed) submission for this month’s postcard swap, it won’t be a collection of random short stories, though. Instead, all of the stories in the collection will depict various key aspects of the world in which the series of novels I’m currently working on will be set. I’m hoping that this collection of short stories will serve two purposes: (1) to help me learn more about how these various aspects work in my world, so I’ll be able to better incorporate them into the stories within this series; and (2) to serve as an introduction to my world for the readers of the novels in this series. Only time will tell how successful I’ll be in this rebellious approach to NaNoWriMo, especially since I’ve never actually finished writing a SHORT story… much less four or five of ’em!

To liven up this post, I’m going to try to include some NaNo “swag”… IF I’m able to “copy and paste” it here.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I was nowhere ready to “hit the ground running” on November 1st. Consequently, I have yet to get myself onto a NaNoWriMo pace. Here are my NaNo stats so far:

Day 1 — 1,004 words (1,004 total words)

Day 2 — 871 words (1,875 — just a bit over one day’s needed word count of 1,667 words)

Day 3 — 1,768 (3,642 total words)

Today’s writing session felt good. The words were flowing… Something that hasn’t happened the past couple of days. Hopefully, they’ll keep flowing as the month progresses. Only time will tell… So, please check back often since I plan to keep y’all up-to-date with daily posts.

Important note: From now on, I’ll be updating my progress on this month’s NaNoWriMo project in the “Journal” section of my Web site, so please take a peek in my online “Journal” every now and then to see how I’m doing.