NaNoWriMo 2021: Days 15-21

We’re now halfway through November! And I definitely am not halfway to my goal. 🤣 Let’s see what we can do.

~Day 15~

I was up early today for work. Well, the same time as I have been usually, I guess?? I forgot to mention this, but I’ve been getting up at 5 in the morning again this year so that I can even have enough time to get everything I need to done. 😂

But anyway.

I ended up skipping over some things, but did a little writing while eating breakfast. It was the scene I decided not to even try to fix 2 days ago, and I actually feel I did a decent job where I worked on.

Snippet:

“Why am I back here?” I groan to myself, rubbing my heels of my palms in my eyes.

Revised today: 794

Total word count: 37,828

~Day 16~

I got up at 6 this morning, completely exhausted from yesterday. I figured I could sleep in, especially since I’m now working late instead today. 🤣

I finished off that scene; I’m quite happy with how it came out. I wrote a lot of new material for it, taking out old stuff. This scene was always a struggle for me to write: it always came out so awkwardly, only kind of achieving that I needed it to. But I think this time I finally hit the mark.

Snippet:

“I guess I’m not the only one not telling you things,” I say.
Grandmother’s eyes narrow slightly. “Sonder… knows?”
I snort slightly. “I guess you could say that. Again: he has followed me around all of Rivercrest.”
“I’m going to have to talk with that boy about boundaries,” Grandmother mutters, “again.”

Revised today: 3,024

Total word count: 40,869

~Day 17~

I wasn’t sure what scene I was going to be fixing today; I took a look at my list, checked off the one I did yesterday, and-

OOOOOOOH! I LOVE THIS SCENE!

I find this scene so funny now, because when I first wrote it, I wasn’t sure if it was even going to stay in the book. 😂 It felt awkward and jerky to me. But when I read through my 1st Draft of the novel, I fell in love with it. All it has done so far is improve, and I’m ready to work on it yet again.

Also, random thing: my brain has now become obsessed with a new idea for a story. 😂 What I find so funny about this situation is that this story idea is months old; I wouldn’t even consider it a true plot bunny, because it’s not a new idea I had!

It was like my heart was just flipping through a magazine, trying to decide what to obsess over next or something.

My brain: dude, that stuff is months old. We don’t have to look at it.

Heart: I dunno… there’s some cool stuff in here- OOOOOOOOH LOOK AT THIS!!

Brain: Wait-!

Heart: *whispers* you’re too late

…

Yeah something along those lines. *nods wisely*

Also, y ou have no idea how good it feels to go through a scene and then barely even touch it. It’s like *angel choirs*

Snippet:

Aurelia whips around in her seat so fast I’m scared she’s going to get whiplash. “What are you doing here?” she gasps. She balks, as if realizing how rude that sounds, and corrects, “I mean… hi.”

I actually laughed right after I wrote that line 🤣

Revise today: 2,098

Total word count: 42,967

~Day 18~

200 words into revising this scene, I already feel like I don’t know what’s going on. 😂 This happened to me a lot last NaNoWriMo: I’d just be minding my business, doing my writing… and then, out of nowhere, my characters would just run away and start doing whatever they wanted.

I’m realizing partway through revising this scene that the one detail change I needed to make is actually bringing along a lot more detail changes than I anticipated; to make this thing work, I have to change how the characters go about literally everything. 😅 I’m not sure what I’m even doing to this poor scene anymore at this point.

Mostly I was just writing new material for this scene today, rather than actually revising what was already there. I wasn’t really expecting that, but it was fun when I came across lines that still fit perfectly with it. 😆 I love watching my characters banter 😝

In the afternoon, I ended up coming back and finishing off the scene in a sprint with my writing buddy (who is absolutely amazing, by the way; she reads my blog, soooooooo, when you see this, writing buddy… HIIIIIIII! *waves wildly*) and I think I’m really happy with how it came out. 😁

Snippet:

Ari, for her part, stays a couple feet away from us as we walk. Had I seen us as a group, I would never have suspected Ari was even part of the group. Which means we wouldn’t be a group; it would be a duo, right? That’s a grammar thing, I think, like the way several is three and you can’t use it for anything less.
Grammar is confusing sometimes. I don’t even know why I’m thinking about it right now.

That last line was all me at that point… 😂

Revised today: 3,493

Total word count: 46,452

~Day 19~

So. I was supposed to get up at 5:00 this morning.

But I went to bed at 11:30 last night. (It wasn’t on purpose 🤣)

I remember turning off my alarm.

But the next thing I knew, I woke up at 7:30 in the morning. 😂 (Also not on purpose 🤣)

I guess my body had a “Nope!” moment and just knocked me out.

Let me tell you something I have discovered: my writing has a good flow within scenes most of the time. That makes revising really intimidating for me to take on sometimes. Like when I change one detail of a scene that will change how the whole thing plays out – which means I might need to basically rewrite it from the top??

Snippet:

Evander gives me a look. “Does it have something to do with the two cups of coffee you brought? I know your favourite is a mocha, but a caramel latte with three shots of espresso? I feel like you have enough energy as it is, Sonder.”
“It has everything to do with them,” I reply cheerfully, not explaining beyond that.

Revised today: 3,904

Total word count: 50,356

…okay. Soooooo I actually wrote up the stats the following day (November 20), and now I’m just staring in surprise.

I’m actually halfway to my goal for 100k of revised words.

Wow! Okay! Let’s dive into today, then! 😂

~Day 20~

I! Am! Very! Tired!

The person who was supposed to close yesterday in my section called in sick, so I stayed late. And then I ended up reading Pride and Prejudice when I got home. 😂

So, long story short, I went to bed at midnight. 😂

But! We are here! We have our coffee! I don’t know why I’m talking in plurals! But I’m going to just have at it and see what I can do. *actually checks which scene I’m going to revise today* *realizes I still need to read over how the end of my scene from yesterday transitions into one of the new scenes of the book*

*comes back like 5 minutes later* Well I just accidentally read through that entire new scene. It’s much better than I thought it was, so that’s good. 😂

*checks what the actual next scene is*

😱

It’s the scene where my two main POV characters meet!