Remember when I crossed the 10,000 word mark for NaNoWriMo? Early last week? And then how I kind of stopped writing?
My friend Honeybee called me out and said: “Girl, you need to write.” And she’s right. I set a goal for myself: 50,000 words or bust. And then I decided, why not post every day in November for NaBloPoMo while I’m at it? Oh and then I decided to start a business, um, yesterday.
(PS: Launch Giveaway Contest with awesome prizes. Check it out! Ends November 30th.)
So we saddled up our laptops, headed to a cafe in between where we live and fired up our novels. She’s steamin’ ahead on word count: almost at 25,000 words. Me? After last night?
*shifts uncomfortably in her seat*
I managed to putter out another 1,776 words. My current word count is at 12,675 words. At this rate, to reach 50,000 words by the deadline, I need to write 2,667 words – every day – between now and November 30th.
I was hoping to have another excerpt out to y’all by this week, in hoping to reach 20,000 words. I’ll do this instead: as soon as I hit 15,000, I’ll release a short excerpt. Another at 20,000, one definitely for 25,000, and then we’ll see how it goes from there. I realized last night that I need to make smaller goals to keep myself going.
I can tell you what the excerpt won’t be: my super awkwardly written love scene. I wrote that last night and I have to say, it reads like trashy romance novel instead of mainstream fiction. For the record: there is no pleasant way to say “penis” when trying to keep it classy. Just can’t be done. And I refuse to leave it at “penis” because it sounds far to clinical. I’m pretty sure this will be the first and last love scene of the novel because I feel like a moron writing this kind of content, despite my otherwise confident ability in the bedroom.
2600+ words a day is kind of a lot, when I really think about it. That’s the equivalent of at least two very long blog posts for me. Which, when I’m already trying to write a single blog post each day, it’s like writing THREE blog posts every single day between now and the end of the month.
Cue: nervous laughter.
One motivator is that the novel writing software I downloaded is a free trial for NaNoWriMo (Scrivener, if you’re curious.) If you “win” NaNoWriMo, that is, reach 50,000 words by the deadline, you get a code to buy the software for half off the regular price. And I flippin’ love Scrivener right now. (No, I’m not paid by them.) In fact, I’d never heard of Scrivener until a few days into NaNo, but now that I’m using it? It’s like a nerdy organizer’s dream when it comes to full on novel development. Character and setting sketches, exports into e-Book and manuscript formats, virtual note cards and corkboards… oh, it’s just writing heaven.
I can do this.
I can make my 50,000 word mark.
It’s NaNoWriMo or bust, baby, and it’s on now!
You can do it!!! One of those days you’ll get into it and won’t be able to stop and crank out the words like crazy. Just you wait! 🙂
Don’t sweat the sex scene. Some of the best books only write about it after the fact, the next day when the characters are lounging in bed so it is from memory and not so graphic. Penises are funny. It’s funny to say, and they’re funny to look at. You are a funny lady, you can always use humor to make it more ‘real’. I loved the first excerpt, and I believe you’ll work it out. Go Keiko!
Go, Keiko, go!! So I matched us up for TPS: I’m more than happy to provide any assistance (including synonyms for the p word;) ). Bonus: you don’t have to read ANY of my novel until November is OVAH.
Just think, if you have one crazy day where you do 6,000 words, your word count average will be back closer to normal.
You can totally do this! I managed 5k words in four hours today with relatively frequent Twitter breaks, you just have to focus on how good it will feel to get to 50k, it will be so worth it. Try and get a few days of three hours and you’ll bring that ‘average word count needed’ down considerably 🙂 Good luck!