NaNoWriMo 2021: Days 1-7

Woo! It is now the first official week of NaNoWriMo! Let’s get straight into this 😁

~Day 1~

I sent out my email for today, and then went to work on another one of my new scenes. I’m almost done all of them; just 2 left!

This scene included a lot of medical information that I was kind of pulling from my memory. 😅 I did a bunch of research last year in the summer on medical stuff for this manuscript, so I was trying to explain things – but also not what I’ve already explained by this point in the story so I’m not just repeating myself?? 🤨 It’s a weird balance. And I may have completely failed that bit, but iT’S FINE.

Snippet of the day:

“Mia, I don’t think now’s the time for puns,” Dad whispers.

“Nonsense; the present is always time for puns!”

Written today: 1,132

Total word count: 11,070

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~Day 2~

So I was really distracted for some reason this morning, and it took me forever to finally knuckle down and get some writing done.

But once I got going, wooooo-eeeee, did I ever get going. 😂

It was such an odd scene, but one I’ve kind of known existed in the back of my head for a long time. Trying to avoid any specific spoilers, I basically did a flashback scene for my characters, back to a time before her Ghost was created. So, it’s before she ever has an inkling of her Lie, and she’s like a different person. This scene isn’t conflict-filled or anything; in fact, it’s really chill. Nothing special happens in it. But that was kind of the point: to show what everything was like before. It kind of gives new meaning to different things happening in the present timeline, both things that have already happened and will happen soon. This scene feels like it’s just kind of settling right in to the story, snuggling up and making itself at home. Which sounds weird, I know, but it’s just this warm thing that stretches out some threads and connects a few different things together and gives readers a better look into why my character is the way she is.

…

Anyway. That monologue aside.

Snippet of the day:

Mum and I pause, looking guiltily at each other like the criminals we are.

Written today: 2,373

Total word count: 13,443

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~Day 3~

Me as I work: Why is revising so hard?

I’ve finished all my new scenes, so now I’m jumping back into actual revisions. But, dude, some of these things are hard. 😂 I want to add in small things at this point to enhance the story further and iron out some of the pacing issues I’m having, as well as build up tension and suspense and just overall improve the story and how I’m telling it. Which is actually a tall order, now that I’m looking at that list.

But anyway! It’s been a bit since I’ve revised, and trying to insert these small things is trickier than you’d think it would be; the scene already has its own flow, so needing small pieces of dialogue inserted can derail a whole conversation.

Snippet of the day:

“You look like you’re hatching a scheme right now,” Grandmother notes as she breezes past me.

Revised today: 3,771

Total word count: 17,220

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~Day 4~

Looking at the scene I’m going to revise today, I feel like I’m on one of those home renovation or cooking shows where they’re like, “I have no idea how I’m going to do this.” 😂 (Look, there’s a TV in the lunch room at my work, and there’s usually 3 things that other people stick on: sports, home renovations, or cooking shows. Personally, I think cooking shows are the best, cause what else would you want to watch while eating? Food + food = yum)

After struggling my way through a chunk of the scene, I left it to go and clean a bathroom. (I do a lot of cleaning whenever I’m home to make up for how much I’m gone 😛 ) I did end up coming back in the afternoon for a bit with my writing buddy, though! 😄

Snippet of the day:

He’s trying to bait me, almost like he did with those tarts – but in a much less nice way. And here I thought he was kind.

He’s going down.

Revised today: 1,469

Total word count: 20,359

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~Day 5~

Me trying to figure out what my characters will say next: This is almost as hard as having a real conversation.

This is the third time I’ve sat down to attempt to revise this scene. It’s literally giving me so much trouble. I knew when I planned my revisions what I needed to happen to help iron out the pacing and fix all the problems in this scene – of which there are numerous. But figuring out how to actually execute those changes is a whole different game.

But! I think I got it to a place I’m satisfied with 😁 I’d like give it a read over tomorrow before work to see how everything holds together – because I made a lot of changes – but I’m going to just leave it alone for now. 😂

Snippet of the day:

“It’s such a fine line between perfection and something inedible,” I agree. “Maybe I just like living on the edge.” Or dying on it, I guess.

Revised today: 2,624

Total word count: 21,319

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~Day 6~

I sat down today – and the first thing I realized was that I wasn’t done this scene, even though I thought I was. 😂 There’s another clip that comes after it.

While writing, I forgot the word ‘dishes’ for a few seconds, and instead called it ‘eating ware’. 😂

I was doing writing in-between everything else this morning. In fact, I’m typing this up about 3 minutes before leaving for work. 😅 I’m not sure how well I did this scene afterwards; I feel like it really dropped the ball with the tension because of some details I needed to add in – but, again, I’ll have to wait until I can read it. *huffs*

Snippet of the day:

Kevin cheerfully gives the employee at the counter a two-finger salute. She, for her part, looks both frazzled and like she just had her favourite customer interaction, ever.

Revised today: 873

Total word count: 22,192

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~Day 7~

I spent my day running around from one thing to another, never sitting down to work on my writing. I tried, once, with my writing buddy, then had to go for dinner. It wasn’t until 9 at night that I finally did. I read over that scene – at last – and fixed a few things about it. I took out some stuff here and there, and added some stuff in in other spots. I also discovered you can go negative in your word count in Scrivener. 😂

But! In the end, I made progress! Exactly 1 new word.

Snippet of the day:

“What are you doing here, then, if you’re not following me around?”

Revised today: 1

Total word count: 22,193

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This week was… crazy. Life-wise, I kept losing track of my days. 😂 Writing-wise, I got more and less done than I expected?? 🤔 Not that I really have any expectations or anything. But I’m already noticing that I’m investing slightly more time into finessing scenes this draft around, which wasn’t totally what I intended to do – but I guess is the only way for me to be able to actually fix the problems in them. 😂

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Days -7-0: 9,938

Days 1-7: 12,255

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And, of course, here’s a peek at what my bingo sheet looks like this week! (If you want to download it, it’s on my Resources page! To get the password for that – which changes monthly – you just have to subscribe 🙂 )

Looking at it now, you can’t really see what spaces are coloured in, I guess. But the new ones are Wrote a scene with internal conflict, Hit your daily word count, Wrote 10 days in a row, and Planned your writing time. 😁 I’ll have to darken up the coloured spaces, I guess; we just got a new printer, and I literally had to run downstairs to even figure out how it scanned stuff so I could add that in right now. 😂

What is your NaNoWriMo story about? I’d love to hear about it! 😄

How are your own goals coming this month?

Anyone else doing the bingo? 😜

-Julia

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash