NaNoWriMo – Day 26

NaNoWriMo Objective:  Write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November

My Word Count as of the End of the Writing Day, November 25:  48,434

I guess for a writer of suspense and mystery stories, I haven’t done too well in real life. 

Yes, I have less than a typical day’s worth of writing left toward the 50,000-word goal, and five days to complete it.  At this point, I could write ‘The End’ 783 times and be done…not that that’s the plan, but I could.  Actually, the plan is to finish the first draft, which I would guess will be around 55,000 words.

At this point, I can say this book has been fun to write.  They all have been, in different ways.  This one, in particular, was a chance to try my hand at a faster paced thriller, with a touch of humor and a bit of romance.  But that’s one of the nice things about writing; a book in a new genre is just a story concept away.

What now, you may ask?  Beta reads; reviewing, revising, and editing; and then to publishing.  It will still be a few months before this book is out on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere.  But these much less interesting parts of the publishing process will get done.

I will have one more NaNoWriMo post, sometime after the end of the month, to give you the last word count and my final thoughts on the activity. 

Happy Writing,
BmP

NaNoWriMo – Day 18

NaNoWriMo Objective:  Write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November

My Word Count as of the End of the Writing Day, November 17:  31,960

My characters have been better behaved, since their digression on Day 9, and so, I’ve had no need to delete their meanderings.  Progress has been slightly above the minimum requirement and fairly consistent.  I’ve gotten a bit ahead and I’ve stayed there…so far.  But you know how books are – lots of twists at the end?  That’s not the plan, but who knows.

As always, opportunities for tweaks have appeared in the course of this first draft, and I’ve written to them.  And, for the most part, I’ve returned to earlier sections to make the required adjustments.  I find that much easier than keeping long lists of changes I need to make on previous sections, and infinitely better than assuming I’ll remember.  That’s because, I don’t remember, and I end up paging back and forth until I run it down.

I’m also posting the first draft of Chapter 2.  Where Chapter 1 was some action, Chapter 2 gets more into the background of one of the main characters, Jeremy, and starts to build some of the suspense.  As always, comments are welcome and appreciated.

Happy Writing,

BmP

NaNoWriMo – Day 12

NaNoWriMo Objective:  Write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November

My Word Count as of the End of the Writing Day, November 11:  20,433

So far, so good.  I’m a bit ahead of schedule, but again, I expect that slack to disappear over Thanksgiving, when it’s unlikely that I’ll write anything for a day or two.

For those of you wondering about the lull around Day 9 – was it just a day off, perhaps?  No, actually, I produced negative words that day.  I’m not sure about anyone else, but writing is not necessarily a linear process for me.  My characters sometimes go off on a tangent, and I have to reel them back in.  That’s what happened on Day 9 – several things I had tried weren’t working and got cut.  Then, things picked up again on Days 10 and 11.

I also promised some excerpts from the first draft, and today, I’m posting the first chapter on the NaNoWriMo Daily Progress tab.  Comments are appreciated, because this is pretty much what one of my beta readers will see when this manuscript is complete.

Happy writing,
BmP

NaNoWriMo – Day 1

NaNoWriMo Objective:  Write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November

My NaNoWriMo Word Count to Date:  0
(hey, I'm hitting the keyboard as soon as this goes live!) 

Be sure to check out my NaNoWriMo tab for daily updates on words written, and later, portions of the novel in work - comments appreciated!

 And now, let the writing begin.

BmP



Picture by mpclemens from Pleasant Hill, United States (NaNoWriMo: the home front) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]