Winter NaNo: Crunch Time!

We are in the middle of week three of Winter NaNo! Since I accepted the challenge to write thirty-two thousand words in four weeks, I figured that breaks down to 1143 words per day. I have to have a visual to keep myself on track, so I keep a calendar on the desktop of my laptop. Each day is marked with the total number of words I need to have written by the end of the day.  So yesterday I needed to have 21,717 words, and by the time I closed my Scrivener program, my manuscript had 21,792. I am on track!

Going into the challenge, I thought I was prepared. I had my characters fleshed out and knew their internal and external conflicts. I had planned my major plot points, and knew how I wanted them to meet. So on February 10, I started writing, starting at the beginning of the story. And for a week or so I kept writing. I'm not a linear writer. Sometimes I get tired of where I am and skip to the end. Or I get inspired to write the Black Moment, when they main characters fear "all is lost." So I just skip to that part and write away. Later on, when the words are all there, I can go back and adjust. I'll probably find there are all sorts of plot holes and inconsistencies. And if I don't find them, my critique partners and/or my proofreaders will find them.

I once mentioned to my family that I read books this way too. I start at the beginning, read a few chapters to see if I like it, then skip to the last quarter of the book and read the ending. And then I go back and read it to find out how they get there. They all looked at me like they were ready to have me committed. Oh, well. They'll get their chance someday. In the meantime I'll continue to do it this way. 

Back to writing. With a little over a week to go, I think I'm doing well. I have the "meat and bones" of a new story here. Next week Saturday, I'll look back and start editing, and hopefully I'll have something I can start grooming, and eventually submit!

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My mom is back from Florida. Since my publisher doesn't do print copies of books that are shorter than 50K, I made her a printout of Aegean Intrigue so she can read it in her easy chair. Hope she likes it.