I’m more than a week into National Novel Writing month, so it’s about time for an update. I’m a NaNo Rebel this year, meaning I’m not following the usual NaNoWriMo protocol of beginning with a brand new novel project at the beginning of the month and planning to write 50,000 words on it during the month of November.
Instead, I’m forging ahead with the book manuscript I was already working on, a young-adult science-fiction novel set on one of the moons of Jupiter. My goal is to have the manuscript first draft finished at the end of the month. I already had a substantial amount of it written, but I’m only counting new writing this month toward my 50,000 words.
So far, I’m doing pretty well. Writing 50,000 words in a 30-day month requires a daily average of a little more than 1,600 words written per day. Following that average, NaNo would suggest than writers aim to be at a cumulative 13,336 words by the end of the day on November 8 (last night). I closed out last night with 18,858 words so far. So I’m actually a little ahead of the game, which is unusual for me. I tend to do well in the more flexible Camp NaNo events, but struggle to get close to 50,000 during November.
Part of my word count so far was made up of a detailed outline. I had originally started this manuscript with a very sketchy outline, and finally felt I had enough of a plot planned out (and written) to make a much more comprehensive outline. It’s already helping. If I sit down to write and aren’t sure what to do, I pull out the outline and pick a scene that’s described but not yet written.
I hope to be at 20,000 words by tomorrow.
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