For those of you not familiar with it, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and is a writing challenge every November to write 50,000 words in a month.

It’s a great opportunity to meet other writers, get motivated and push up your word count. You can adapt the challenge to your own circumstances.

Find out more at www.nanowrimo.org

The last time I did the challenge was in 2018 and I ended up abandoning the novel. This year, I am going to be a NaNo rebel and not stick to the rules. I am aiming to write an additional 18,000 words of an existing draft (book four) by the end of the month.

29 October 2021 – day 1

Goal: 900 words                                               Achieved: 907 words                      Total: 907 words

Scheduled start time: 9.30am

I am moving house on Monday – the first day of November – so decided to start the challenge two days early.

Started writing about 9am by reading through my first draft. Quite early, I spotted changes that could be made so worked on the first six chapters, adding 907 words to my word count and splitting a few chapters to make the story develop a bit more slowly. I really enjoyed being back with these characters.

Finished about lunchtime. The NaNoWriMo website is not allowing me to register my wordcount which is disappointing – will try again tomorrow. The plan is to do the same tomorrow, working through the chapters and adding story and character as I go.

30 October 2021 – day 2

Goal: 900 words                                               Achieved:  629 words                    Total: 1,536 words

Scheduled start time: 9.30am

Woke up early and wrote 629 words between 6.30am and 7.30am. These weren’t new words but a section from the first draft that I edited to fit into the story so really easy. Still can’t update the website which is disappointing.

I am reading ‘The Art of War for Writers’ by James Scott Bell for inspiration while I write. Hoping to do another session this morning and that’s my word count done for the next few days while we move house.

Update: no more new words, real life took over! Managed to update the website this morning.

31 October 2021 – day 3

Moving house – no words

1 November 2021 – day 4

Goal: 0 words                                    Achieved: 618                                                   Total: 2,154

Couldn’t sleep so got up at 4.30am and wrote 618 words. 😊

2 November 2021 – day 5

Goal: 300 words                               Achieved:  302 words                                    Total: 2,456

I didn’t think I would get much writing done today with the house move but forced myself to do 45 minutes in the evening. Not sure I was very inspired and kept moving sections around but managed 302 words.

3 November 2021 – day 6

Goal: 300 words                               Achieved: 351 words                                      Total: 2,807

Scheduled time to start writing: 8.30am

Working today but set off early and wrote in a café. Wrote 351 words by hand in a notebook. Not had chance to type them up yet. Deliberately created some conflict between my two main characters in the form of an argument. Also had a couple of ideas about plot lines and a new suspect, so it was a good session. I enjoyed writing in a café and wrote some pen portraits of the people there.

4 November 2021 – day 7

Goal: 500 words                               Achieved: 563                                                    Total: 3,370

Scheduled time to start writing: 8pm

Really tired from the house move but started writing at 7pm. First, I typed up the words I had written in my notebook yesterday, expanding some of it and adding a bit more to chapters 13 and 14. Achieved another 217 words easily and then started procrastinating and getting distracted.

Spent an hour doing other things (writing related) and then set a timer for 20 minutes and switched off the internet. Managed to write 346 words in about 15 minutes. I find this kind of focussed writing really helps.

TOTAL WORDS, WEEK ONE: 3,370 WORDS

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash