I think it’s time for another NaNoWriMo update!

I have written 50,237 words this month!  Well, a little bit more than that, because I always try to write a little bit more than the 50k, but I reached my goal, and I did it a few days early.  I’m still going to be writing, but I won’t be writing the way I was for most of the month.  This story I’ve been working on is nowhere close to being finished-I have two books outlined, and a couple of ideas for a next book, but other than that, I have nothing.

I’m not sure where to go next: I’m not sure if I want to finish writing what I have outlined, if I want to work on the characters and the world, if I want to take a break before doing anything else, or if I want to try to outline the rest of the story.  Or some combination of those things.

A break would be nice, because it would give me some distance before starting up again.  But I’m also worried that the momentum I’m had for the entire month will vanish if I stop, and that I won’t go back to it if I take a break. We’ll see, I suppose.  It’s not like I have to decide right this instant.

It really has been an easy year- of the now 10 times I’ve done NaNo, this one has been the EASIEST year by far, and I think a lot of it has to do with having an outline and using Scrivener.  I knew where it was going, and that made it a lot easier to write, especially since I had quite a few days where I didn’t want to write whatever scene I was supposed to be writing.  It was really easy to jump to something I did want to write, and it was just as easy to go back and write the scenes I skipped over.  It was also really easy to move things around and combine scenes or add more scenes or even get rid of scenes if I needed to.

It’s also really nice to have this entire story (and everything relating to it) in one place.  It’s been nice having in one place and having it really easy to find, and having it fairly organized.  It’s a little weird, because I’m so used to using Word, but having used Scrivener for about a month, I don’t think I could go back to Word.

Overall, NaNo has gone really well this year, and I’m really excited about this story in particular.  I definitely can’t wait to keep working on it!

Every year, I participate in NaNoWriMo, aka National Novel Writing Month, where tons of people all over the world try to write a 50,000 word book in 30 days.

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to write about it!  Originally, my blog started out as my way of chronicling NaNo back in 2010, when I was crazy enough to write 3 50,000 word novels in one month.  Be sure to check out the October and November archives for those posts, plus my Writing Projects pages.

Random Tangent: I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for 4 years!  That seems like forever ago, it really does…and my blog has changed so much since then too.  It’s bizarre but also really cool.

Back to NaNo:

I have only a vague idea of what I’m writing.  This year, I’m writing a YA paranormal book, in which there’s this amulet that needs to be destroyed in a particular way or else the world as we know it will end, and a darker world emerge.

I have some notes and ideas, but I’ve had such a hard time coming up with more concrete details in terms of abilities and this world, so for now, I’m just going to write and see what happens.  Part of me wants to have more of an idea of this world and the characters, because I feel like it’s going to make it so much easier to write, but at the same time, I have no idea how to go about it.  I’ve struggled with fleshing out the details, so I guess I just need to come up with ideas and stick with them, but I kind of want to just write and see what happens too.  For some reason, just writing seems to work better to help me figure things out.

I’ll definitely be posting about NaNo throughout the month.  Maybe once a week, but I haven’t really settled on a set schedule.

I actually see it as a trilogy, but who knows if I’ll actually get to writing the other books?  For sure, I’ll wait to see how this one goes to see if I even want to continue with this story, because I want to write something I’m interested in.

I’m currently at 2,347 words, so as of now, I’m fairly ahead, and close to where I need to be at the end of Day 2.  I’m actually glad NaNo starts off on weekend (and November has an astounding 5 weekends!) because I’m aiming to get a little bit ahead (at least a day ahead) and to stay ahead.  Having a cushion is good, and I really want to start off with that cushion, because it makes things so much easier when I know that have some extra words.  But I’m definitely hoping to write as much as I can this weekend.  I just really want to get off to a good start, you know?

As far as writing goes, my plan is to write what I can during the week, and write a ton on the weekends.  Which is something that works really well for me, because I obviously have more time on weekends.  And it’s also why I like having a buffer of some sort, even if it’s not that much of a buffer.

If anyone else is doing NaNo, you find me here!  Good luck to anyone who’s writing like crazy this month!