NaNoWriMo Week #4

This is it. Crunch time. I have eight days to get fifteen thousand words in. I did about three thousand today, and so I'll have to do about two thousand a day to get finished on time. Unfortunately, my two best friends ar going to be in town, so distractions will be many. BUT I WILL OVERCOME!

Wish me luck.

NaNoWriMo Weeks #2 and #3

Well, it's November 20th. And I'm behind. I have ten days left to get to 50k, and that means 2,000 words a day--which is what my goal was in the first place, but that didn't happen. I hit a wall for a little while, stuck on a chapter that I had to fix before I could move on. Something just wasn't right about the first part of the piece, and until I went back and made it tolerable, I couldn't keep writing. So that cost me some time and some words. Also, life distracts sometimes. Things happen. But I will win NaNoWriMo, I'm confident of this. And--call me crazy--but I think I'm gonna do another 50k in December.

Yes, I'm insane.

But this book is definitely going to be longer than 50k, and it may even be longer than 100k. Only time will tell. And I don't have that much time left, so back to work. No, what am I saying. Sleep first, then writing tomorrow. I'm not that insane.

As a side note, I totally got Johann Johannsson's new score for the movie The Theory of Everything, and it is fantastic and is now a part of my To Look Skyward playlist. Seriously, check out his stuff, he's an amazing composer. (Enjoy the soundtrack below.)
 

NaNoWriMo Week #1

Well, it's Sunday afternoon and I'm right on par for my NaNoWriMo novel, To Look Skyward. 15,000 or so words, and almost three chapters in (finishing up that third one today), and I'm excited for this story. Of course, my initial ideas were shifted around and rearranged in my head even with the first words written down, and I expect that to happen more and more as I get closer to the end, but I am still super pumped to write this book, and I am super pumped for people to read it!

For this project I decided to try something a little bit different on the critiquing end--I uploaded my chapters to Google Docs and shared the links with my writing group and on a writing forum I'm a member of, allowing them to comment while while reading to give me their honest reactions as they happen. It's been super helpful so far, and I'm definitely going to keep using it. From the initial feedback I've gotten on my first chapters, the book is going well, and though there is obviously some work to do on the editing side of things--for example, I didn't get the characterization of my main character quite right in the first chapter--but that is the nature of first drafts.

(Note: If you're at all interested in reading my novel as I write it and giving me feedback, send me a text, Facebook message, email, or direct message on Twitter and let me know, I'll get you the links. I'd really appreciate any suggestions you could give me.)

So far in November, I've been listening to a custom playlist I put together just for the writing of To Look Skyward, including music from Rhian Sheehan, Johann Johannsson, Hans Zimmer's Man of Steel score (which is the theme album for the world of TLS), and soon Hans Zimmer's Interstellar score. I just finished watching that fantastic movie, and though the soundtrack has yet to be released, it will fit perfectly with the rest of the music I've set aside for TLS, with beautiful piano, organ, and strings. Sorry, I'm a film score buff.

Well, I'm off to do some editing on the first scene to rectify with the prologue I just added, and then I'm off to write more. (Shh, don't tell anyone I'm editing my novel during NaNoWriMo. I'll get in trouble.)

Have a good day, and I'll give you another update in a week!