NaNoWriMo Day 14
Welcome to my little experiment, where I lift the curtain on my writing process during NaNoWriMo 2023 in an effort to feel less alone. If you’re also doing NaNoWriMo, feel free to add me as a buddy!
daily summary 📅
We are almost halfway through NaNoWriMo and while I might have a lot of words, I’m not very far along in the story. I’ve had quite a few false starts; I think I’ve tried three or four different openings, and it’s only today that I feel as though I’ve truly achieved a breakthrough. But that is the way of writing sometimes—sometimes you just have to spin your wheels in the mud for a while before you finally get traction on something and haul yourself out of the hole.
daily process ⏱️
12:40PM. Had training this morning with Castor. I swear these training sessions wipe me out as much, if not more, than the dog.
2:32PM. Lunch cooked and consumed, now it’s time to see if I can’t stave off food coma long enough to hit my word count. I’m not going to draft until I finish this long, shitty synopsis, and we’re not even close to figuring out how this book is going to go. [redacted word vomit]
3:21PM. 540 words. We are making some headway on the story at least.
4:15PM. 980 words. We are nearing the end of the first act and things are happening? As much as I’m going to try and avoid this, I think I’m going to end up with six different POVs. Why. Six POVs and three storylines why am I doing this to myself????
4:55PM. 1039 words. Truly writing is like trying to untangle Cobble’s Knot from Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. You just pick at it and pick at it for a while and it seems to only get bigger and more frazzled, so you have to sit down and have a snack and take a nap. Just when I think I know where the story is going, I make some sort of breakthrough that changes everything and I have to start the word vomit all over again.
5:42PM. 2025 words. I have started this book about three or four times now, but I think—I think—this time I’ve got it. The story is flowing and I feel as though I can see the forward momentum now instead of meandering around with no purpose.
Now to pick up Pollux from daycare. I need a brain reset again. Maybe I’ll play some more Dragon Age or—heaven forbid—read a book????
That’s Day 14 of NaNoWriMo done! How about y’all? Any successes? Failures?
