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National Novel Writing Month It’s the last day of November and therefore the last day of my unofficial National Novel Writing Month. At the start of the month I planned to add 50,000 words to a manuscript I had been working on. Well I got to the 50,000 words yesterday. Yay me. So that is two years in a row that I have written 50,000 words in November. I had a little scare on Monday when I could not find chapters 77 and 78. After a frantic search through the novel’s folder and back-up folder, I realised that I had not written them yet. While searching I divided the chapter files into folders of ten to make it easier to see what files I had. I found that two chapters were missing from my hard drive, but fortunately were on the back-up memory stick. During the month I completed the daily target of 1667 words on every day. I know my word tally will drop off from today, but I hope not to the extent it did last year. At least 500 words a day would be nice, that is until I st...

I started this week 18 days into my unofficial National Novel Writing Month with 19004 words to write to reach my 50,000 word total. This is how I went: Day 19: I realised the chapter I was 600 words into was in the wrong person, so I broke the NaNo rule of no editing and went back and changed it to first person. While doing that I had a brain fade and thought I had failed to explain a plot element so I started to explain it and then realised I had already done that earlier in the novel. I eventually got everything sorted out and I wrote 1797 new words. Day 20: A very good day of writing where lots of elements of the story were dealt with in quick succession. I wrote 1776 words for the day. Day 21: Amazingly, after spending much of the day researching and writing a new article for Divine, and then transcribing all my loose notes for the novel into its outline, I managed to reach my daily word target and wrote 1674 words. Day 22: I fooled around with the outl...

National Novel Writing Month I am three-fifths of the way through my unofficial National Novel Writing Month. This is how I went: Day 12: I had a lot of fun creating an alien. Originally it was going to be a variation of an X-File grey, but by changing the POV character when it first appears, it became something much more original and aesthetically interesting.   I wrote 1719 words for the day. Day 13: The words came express delivery. When I walked to town and back in the morning I spent most of the walk with notepad and pen in hand scribbling notes. When I got home I wrote a scene that involved a quick-fire, multi-layered conversation between a doctor, pilot, linguist, yobo and three aliens. I wrote 1778 words for the day. Day 14: Many interruptions today, but I eventually wrote 1693 words. Day 15: I wrote 1678 words to reach 25,911 words at the halfway point of the month. Day 16: When I got back from my swim I spent the next hour writing not...

The First Full Week of NaNo I have just finished my first full week of my unofficial attempt at National Novel Writing Month. It has been a tiring week and my neck is sore. The week began with day five of the challenge. Day 5 : The plot of the story deviated from my outline, but it is still going in the right direction. I wrote 1692 words for the day. Day 6 : I wrote 1775 words and just passed the 10,000 word mark, so I was one-fifth of the way through the month with just over one-fifth of the words written. Day 7 : I wrote the crucial scene, the scene that shows my main character has changed. 1827 words for the day. Day 8 : Writing seemed easy today. It’s great to write a chapter length scene of 1697 words when I am trying to write 1667 words a day. Day 9 : One of my characters decided to get themselves killed three chapters early, why do outcasts always do the unexpected? I wrote 1747 words. Day 10 : Had to do a bit of medical research while wri...

My Unofficial NaNoWriMo I am four days into my unofficial attempt at National Novel Writing Month. To achieve the 50,000 words in a month I need to average 1667 words a day. I began the challenge with 105,713 words of the novel written and I was 833 words into chapter fifty-three.   Day one:   A good solid start. Did bits of research as I went using the web. I finished chapter fifty-three and got halfway through chapter fifty-four. I updated the outline of coming chapters up to chapter sixty. Wrote 1726 words. Day two:   I love days were I have to constantly stop what I am doing to scribble down notes for my writing. I had to pull the notebook out on my way back from the pool, and while eating breakfast and then lunch. My mind was on the job and I wrote 1809 words. Day three: Started late so I struggled to get the words done. And then I had a bit of a plot quandary which had been stopping to think for a while. I ended up writing 1671 words. ...