Anything Fictional

Word count: 46,944.

I’m now only 3,056 words away from becoming a NaNoWriMo winner for the second year! With any luck, I’ll be there by about this time tomorrow, if not a little sooner.

Having today off to write had been great! I was at my desk and writing by 8:30am, and had a few breaks throughout the day, with Maria coming over at lunchtime for an hour or so before going off to get a haircut. It’s our five year anniversary tomorrow, so we are heading out to dinner tonight. So that’s why I’m not intending on doing any more writing tonight. Close to 3,500 words is pretty good for a single day, and I’m well within reach of making the 50,000 by Sunday night, so I’m taking the night off to have a nice relaxing dinner.

Having the day off today to focus on writing has been fantastic. I could really get used to it. Not only does writing get done, but also it’s a good time to be at home for other reasons as well. I had someone come around this morning to fix the blinds in the living room of my flat that no longer opened and closed properly, and also I could be here for the delivery of the flowers I’d ordered for Maria for our anniversary. A good friend and great writer, Bella – who I started a writing group with a few years back – used to have a day off a week to focus on writing, and I got a bit of a taste for it today.

Hmm, now how do I convince the company I work for that I want this to be a regular thing…

Word count: 43,599.

Today saw me do only about 500 words or so. That was partly due to conscious choice, and partly due to the poor decision to go out for a few drinks after work (mostly the second, though!)

Having worked on Saturday last weekend, I arranged to have tomorrow off work, so today felt a bit like a Friday for me anyway. When I get caught up in nights like out like that, in the past I’ve been inclined to stay out fairly late, even if I have to work the next day.

But I actually thought I was being good. I left about 8:30pm, but by the time I got home and had a little bit of dinner, it was 9:30pm, going on 10pm. So I did a little bit of writing. I’m glad I did something at least.

So now, after talking to my partner Maria on the phone for twenty minutes, I am making the executive decision that I would be much more productive tomorrow if I just go to bed and get a good sleep.

I can begin the final 6,401 words of my novel tomorrow…

Word count: 43,024.

The end is definitely in sight now, of both NaNoWriMo and my novel. I’m actually quite excited about how the ending is coming together. I’m finding these scenes interesting to write, and hopefully, for the reader, they will be full of suspense and surprises. And if their not, well, it’s only the first draft, and a very planned on at that.

I am looking forward to the end of NaNoWriMo though – mostly for the obvious reason that it will be exciting to have finished another novel in 30 days. But also for the fact that I can get plenty of sleep again. I’ve always been a bit of a night owl, but it’s just felt like every night this month I’ve been up till midnight or later writing. And as fun as writing can be – its great when you experience that loss of time cuz you’re so involved in it! – it can be a mentally draining activity. Especially after you’ve been at work all day working on other mentally draining activities.

And I’ve already got the champagne in the fridge for Sunday when I write those final words!!

Word count: 41,030.

I only managed a thousand words today, buy knowing that I’ve got three days at the end of the week to get to 50,000 I’m not that concerned.

What I’m hoping this year is that I will actually finish the story. During nanowrimo last year, I romped thru the end and finished at 60,000 words, but I never completed the story. I was about 5000 maybe from the end on nov 30, and thought ‘I’ll just finish it off in a week or two.’ but I never did. Mainly because I had other writing projects I was focusing on. So there are only about 10 scenes left to write before the story’s end, so this year will actually get there…

Word count: 40,123.

Hooray! I made it to 40,000 words! It feels like the beginning of the end from here. It’s like when you are on the highway, and you see the sign that the exit to your destination is 2km away. You’re not there yet, but you know it’s not far off.

Now that I’m back on track with my word count, I feel like I can take off a lot of the pressure I’ve been putting on myself. After having the days of needing to write 2500-3000 words to not fall further behind, writing only 1667 words in a day seems easy… I never thought I’d say that. At the same time as getting back on track, I feel like I’ve had better focus on writing. Tonight is one of the few times that I’ve finished my writing for the day, and it’s not 11:30pm or 12am.

After Saturday – when I wrote out a plan of the scenes that I needed to write before the end of the book – I’ve slowly been ticking those off. I have 15 scenes written down, and I’ve managed to write 6 of those now. And they’re starting to be really fun scenes to write as well, where some of the mysteries surrounding the story are getting revealed to the main character.

Every now and then, I’ll tweak these a little bit – maybe move one scene a little later or drop one scene if it does make sense to have it – but I’m definitely finding having a list of scenes to write that I can then tick off as I complete them very satisfying.