Howdy!
So we’re done with November and the question that is burning on everybody’s mind is, am I finished with my novel or not? Well, I’ll just say this, I never really expected to be finished with my first draft in 30 days. I don’t think anybody should expect these results, especially in the first year you participate.
So how did it go?
After the first week was over, I counted up both sections and I went passed the 10,000 mark! I was very proud of myself, but the third week was a bit rough for me, because I went through my lady days and I was really uncomfortable so I basically took time off and waited until after Thanksgiving was over to get back into everything. I felt incredibly guilty because I had done such a good job of not giving into my demons and for a while I was able to keep them at bay.
After the week was done, I did not finish the rest of the month. It was mostly because of the fact I still wasn’t feeling good, but I wasn’t as motivated to work on it as I had in the beginning of the month. However, I do want to tell you the exact word count of my unfinished product so far, which is 14,207 words!
What’s next for me?
The more I thought about it, I started to feel more confident in what I had done, I know I’m not a failure. I was actually happy that I decided to do it, or else it would have stayed locked up inside my mind, which majority of it is still there, but I mean at least I have a better idea of what I want done and know what to do work on, because I know I need to read up on my fight/training scenes and how to do better dialogue.
I do know that I want to finish my outline. I was never able to finish that and I think that’ll really help me with figuring out where to add my antagonist’s point of view in there. I need to find out if the big cataclysm in my story is big enough to motivate all of my characters into the world that they’re living in, because I feel I haven’t really explained that very well in what I’ve written so far. I’d also like to do more interviews to get a better understanding of my main character and his condition. So anybody that has adult ADHD, paralyzed, has a prosthetic and/or visually impaired or if you are a parent that has a child with it, will you be up for an interview?
I need to look into more information about underground bunkers, luckily for me I’ve watched several specials lately and I could use them as references. I need to do some more research on different locations either inside Washington D.C. or outside of the state of Delaware as a good placement for the setting of my story. I also need to figure out my weapons. I have a whole book about them, but I haven’t exactly read it yet, so I’m hoping in the new year I will actually look into that and so what I can come up there. I have one other idea to look into if the book doesn’t really help me.
Should you join NaNoWriMo next year?
I think if you are a writer and have a clever idea for a book, I think you should definitely look into NaNo for 2018.
If you do decide to try it, please don’t do what I did and cram everything in one week before you actually start writing! For one thing, you will feel scattered brain because you have trained to focus on little scenes and now you have to add more details into your actual writings.
The word count of 1,667 is intimidating as hell, but if you decide early on that whatever amount of words you write that day will work out better than forcing yourself to ramble on! I always felt proud if I got passed triple digits and two pages each day, to me that was enough! Do NOT push yourself! If you don’t feel like writing that day, then you need to take a break. Read a book or watch your favorite TV show or movie. Do anything else beside writing to help you relax your brain and maybe the next day you can jump back into it.
I hope you have enjoyed these follow up posts and if I continue on my journey of writing my book, I will keep you updated I promise!
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