November is over, as is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I set out to write at least 50,000 words for my sequel novel, and I’m pleased to say I did it!
As I explained in my first post on this topic, I planned to do 1,667 words every day. Since I work part-time and can hit that mark in about two hours a day, this wasn’t a huge burden. But doing it every day for a month was a bit of a strain. Here are the numbers for the final week:
|
Date |
Minutes Writing |
Daily Words |
Cumulative Words |
Daily Goal |
Cumulative Goal |
Excess over Goal |
| 11/24 | 131 | 1,850 | 41,409 | 1,667 | 40,008 | 1,401 |
| 11/25 | 130 | 1,700 | 43,109 | 1,667 | 41,675 | 1,434 |
| 11/26 | 123 | 1,800 | 44,909 | 1,667 | 43,342 | 1,567 |
| 11/27 | 118 | 1,797 | 46,706 | 1,667 | 45,009 | 1,697 |
| 11/28 | 0 | 0 | 46,706 | 1,667 | 46,676 | 30 |
| 11/29 | 108 | 1,740 | 48,446 | 1,667 | 48,343 | 103 |
| 11/30 | 167 | 1,704 | 50,150 | 1,667 | 50,010 | 140 |
I only missed the mark twice: Once when we had a flooded basement emergency (see this post), and once to take a day off for Thanksgiving (which, by the way, was great, with a smoked turkey done on a Traeger – a first for me). I had enough days over the 1,667 pace to allow for those two days off, and finished with 50,010 words (yeah, just squeaked it in that last day!).
Since I had a head start going into NaNoWriMo, I now have 67,870 words on the sequel, which is called The Rogue of Sevado, by the way. I have about another 30-40K words plotted out for that. I plan to keep writing consistently (although I did take another day off December 1 to clear my head), at a lower pace. I plan to write at least 500 words every day, with a goal to get 1,000. That will get me to a completed first draft by the end of January. I’m enjoying the story, and hoping my readers will, too!
One of the things I learned this past month was to just write. Even if I didn’t have a clear idea of what the next scene was (I always had a high-level idea, from my detailed plot plan), just write. Even if there’s a plot hole, just write and fix it later. Even if I had some new ideas for a previous scene, just write (make a note about the idea and come back to it on the rewrite).
JUST WRITE!
Finally, for your reading pleasure, here are two new promotions of free sci-fi e-books (including my novella, The Worth of a World). Check them out, you’re sure to find something you’ll enjoy!
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Rick A. Allen - SciFi Author 