NaNoWriMo 2021: Days 8-14

It’s the second official week of NaNoWriMo – and this one comes with a new challenge:

Time change.

~Day 8~

So.

I got my post out this morning.

And my email.

But that was it.

😂

I had been scheduled far earlier for work than I ever had been, and I had to leave really quickly to catch my bus so I could get there on time. I planned on writing when I got home that night, but by the time I got back, I was wiped out – and still needed to prep stuff for work tomorrow. 😅

So, despite how much I wanted to push on and just write anyway… I knew I needed sleep desperately, and that I’d just have to prioritize my health.

No snippet today.

Revised today: 0

Total word count: 22,193

~Day 9~

Turns out it was a good thing I went to bed, because I’m so tired today. 😂 That time change from Sunday gave me a nice extra hour of sleep on the one day, but now, it’s wrecking havoc on me. I feel like it’s an hour later than it is, so then I get tired for bed at specific times – aka when I’m not in bed – and hungry at specific times – aka when I’m not eating – and generally am just completely thrown off by it.

But! I am here. It is time for me to actually get some writing done.

This scene today is one that I’ve side-eyed in every single version of the novel: when I wrote it, and when I read it. It’s in the middle of the 3rd Act, so I’m walking on a tightrope. I have to balance the character believing in the Truth and fighting for it, but also the way the Lie continues to rear its ugly head in the form of fears and difficulties.

Source | *An accurate representation of what I’m doing right now…*

This scene in particular has always given me trouble, as I’m talking about two closely related things on both sides – the Truth and the Lie – and need to make sure I never contradict myself. Which is really hard, for some reason. 😅

Source | *Me attempting to agree with myself*

However, I was determined. I put some honey in my coffee today, turned on my playlist of favourite music, and had at it.

That sounds super dramatic; in reality, I was slowly reconsidering different things and trying to tell the scene in a different manner – while also feeling the whole time like I wasn’t writing in my character’s voice. *huffs* Writing is hard, man.

Snippet of the day:

I set my alarm – far earlier than usual – and move to go to bed. I stop.
One alarm isn’t going to cut it.
I go to bed a few minutes later, satisfied. There’s now about fifteen set at one minute intervals on my phone to make sure I’ll actually end up getting up.

Revised today: 2,320

Total word count: 24,513

~Day 10~

I’m officially exhausterated. 😂 I had a late night last night (well, later than usual, at least), and keep having early mornings, so I’m just really tired today.

I came to write this morning, though, and discovered that Abbie Emmons was holding a livestream. I haven’t attended one in forever, so I just went for it and joined. I didn’t get much done, to be honest, but it was nice. 🙂 Got to dive a little more into my character’s internal conflict surrounding a certain thing, and some details about her parents. I feel like I’ve slowly been developing them in my mind so that they have their own unique personalities and stories, and the few things I know that I can add in are making them appear to be so rich and full of depth. 😆 Also her dad is literally so underrated. I’m the only one who has read this manuscript, and I still feel like that. He’s awesome. 🤣

Snippet:

The real problem isn’t that I’m scared I set up my easel the wrong way or something; that’s fixable.

Revised today: 566

Total word count: 25,079

~Day 11~

I did some cleaning this morning, then went out with my family. 😁 We went to this little German store, and everything in it was so beautiful. I loved everything 😆

Source | *Basically me @ everything* 😂 **Mary** can confirm this is true.

I ended up doing some writing this afternoon. I switched scenes, actually 🤣 I went from the scene I was working on yesterday to my Midpoint scene. I only needed to add in a few details, but I noticed quite quickly that the part leading into it needs some serious help. But I’m not currently working on line edits, so *huffs* I guess I have to leave it for now.

I’m pretty satisfied with the actual Midpoint moment, though, and the small part following it. Lots of answers presented, questions raised, and internal conflict resolved and created. *rubs hands together gleefully*

Snippet:

I don’t ask for things.
I demand them.

Revised today: 9,242

Total word count: 34,321

Please remember that most of this isn’t what I wrote! I’m just copy-pasting my old writing into a new file and fixing it up. 😛 That’s the amount of words I went through today.

~Day 12~

Today I’m backtracking to the scene I was previously working on. 😆 Although technically it’s further along in the timeline of the story. But I digress.

While writing, I went looking for a specific point in the story in my 2nd Draft document – and as I was doing so, I noticed one of my scene titles. 😂 In Scrivener, you can name your files, and I like to number my scenes as well as name them by what’s going on. Sometimes, it’s serious; a lot of the time, I’m just goofing off, or else saying it like it is to save me some time. But every once and a while, I make a reference to something instead. This one was a mix of the reference and the goofing off – for the scene where every fear one of my characters has harboured throughout the book and tried to avoid coming true come true. 😂 I literally stared at it before giving a hysterical giggle and whispering, “Oh my gosh, self; what??”

Towards the end of the scene, I discovered some of the stuff I’d added in 2 days ago conflicted with the perceptions I’d given the character later in the scene.

There’s a scene super full of internal conflict that comes after this one, and I read through my notes on what I was going to change in it. It was something dramatic and heavy-hitting, and then this was at the end of it:

So, that can kind of give you an idea of what I’m like to my characters. 🤣

Also, you won’t believe what I discovered when I was revising this scene: there’s a small part I repeated on accident. I said it in my Midpoint scene, and I did it here, now, in this other character’s scene. I didn’t even know I’d done that. (And I probably never would have had I not revised the Midpoint scene just yesterday 🤣) Obviously I must seize this chance, and go back to the Midpoint to make sure they say it the exact same way.

Snippet of the day:

I give a growl of frustration, shaking out my hands as if to get rid of the nervous energy that has possessed me tonight.
Actually, it’s not just tonight.
I’ve just been ignoring it, trying to pretend it’s not there. That I don’t feel as much as I do.

Revised today: 2,740

Total word count: 37,034

~Day 13~

I pulled up a scene to revise today.

I knew what I had to change.

I took one look at it.

And decided I’m a horrible writer and I didn’t feel like attempting to fix it.

So, I closed my computer and I didn’t.

And that was literally it for today. 😂

No snippet today.

Revised today: 0

Total word count: 37,034

~Day 14~

I was busy all day, going from one thing to the next. When I finally sat down to do writing, I was asked to play a board game with my family instead.

So, no writing today either. 😂

Days -7-0: 9,938

Days 1-7: 12,255

Days 8-14: 14,841

And here’s my bingo for this week!

You can only really see the new ones – the purple ones – but there are more coloured in there, I swear. 🤣 (If you want to download this bingo for yourself, you can do so on my Resources page! To get the password for that, you just need to subscribe 🙂)