I don’t remember NaNoWriMo being so hard.
How is your NaNo going so far?
I’m a couple thousand words behind but it’s nothing I can’t catch up on. I now understand why everyone advises getting proper sleep during nano lol. I have been staying up way too late trying to get my word count in. And daylight savings ends next week so I’m just going to end up running on empty all month, so I decided to trade out my long nights for early mornings. Hopefully, I’ll have time before school.
I also decided that this weekend when I’m off of work, I want to try to fit in a 5k weekend. Next week I have a few things on my calendar that are going to interfere with my writing time so getting a couple thousand words ahead will be much appreciated. I just hope that 5k day doesn’t go into catching up.
I am currently two chapters into my book. I haven’t written the first draft since spring so everything feels unnatural. I also haven’t written a middle-grade novel since I was in middle school. I’m finding fluffing things up and stuff is proving to be somewhat difficult. Lots of the things I’m writing are more on the silly side. How do middle-grade authors do it? I think I’m just overthinking it (as always).
What are some challenges you’re facing?
My book was supposed to be a fantasy parody of Treasure Island, but I got carried away while outlining and now it is nothing like treasure island. It’s not even a retelling at this point. Maybe that’s okay.
One of the reasons I hate drafting new projects is because I can’t see the story as clearly. I’m a pantser so right now I have half of an outline (which, let’s be real is just a brainstorming session). Can anyone else relate though? I don’t feel as emersed in the world as I do when I’m writing draft two or three. which I suppose is normal. It just makes things a little harder (and way less fun).
What is your strategy for NaNo?
Am I the only one who doesn’t outline characters? I did not work on any character details as a sort of writing experiment. I found that in the last book I wrote, all of my character sheets ended up being in vane. Thanks to my last book I discover what it really means to be a pantser. So I let my characters write themselves and I find I end up with stronger character arcs and stories this way.
Right now I’m concerned about bulking up the story so it doesn’t end before I reach the 30,000 mark. It’s just hard to write subplots when your characters are on a time crunch.
Tell me how you’re doing this first (half) week of NaNo!
Thanks a bunch!
— Nerd
The Adventures of a Nerd. 