Alicia Justice's Blog, page 9

NaNoWriMo Journal: Day 15

I know I keep saying this but it’s already day 15 of NaNo! We are halfway finished with NaNoWriMo2021. That is crazy to even think about. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to post anything today or just wait till tomorrow and do a two-day in one type post, but I figured since we are halfway finished I should probably post.

So with that being said, today I wrote 2,179 words! I mainly wrote them late at night because I am a nighttime writer. When I say late at night I mean between 10 PM and Midnight every night is when I write the most.

I was able to get in four sprints with some friends over on Twitch, which has become one of my favorite places to sprint. I’m honestly thinking of adding Twitch streaming as a must-do to my list for next year. If that would interest anyone, please let me know in the comments!

Anyway, right now I’m sitting at 42,198 words for Second to Fall, which is the second book in my First to Fight series.

Big news: First to Fight Update!

The edits from my editor for First to Fight are almost finished and I’ll be working on revisions during December! So as of right now, we are right on schedule.

How’s your NaNo project going, or if you’re not participating how is your writing or even reading going? Are you meeting your writing/reading goals? 

NaNoWriMo Journal: Days 12-14

Hello everyone, so I didn’t blog any this past weekend, but I wanted to jump on here and give you a quick update and glimpse at why I didn’t blog. I did get some writing in and I surpassed the 40k point on the 14th, but part of the weekend I ended up with a headache. So that’s the main reason I didn’t get the blog posts up on time. Figured since there wasn’t much to post on the update anyway, a weekend blog might be the better way to go as well. So, here we go!

Friday Nov. 12th

Friday I was able to get 1,356 words in for my NaNoWriMo project, which isn’t too bad. I was shooting for 2000 words, but it just didn’t happen. Here’s my take on that though, at least I got new words! I’m pretty far ahead so I didn’t get too upset with myself for not reaching my normal 2000 words a day goal.

Saturday, Nov. 13th

So Saturday wasn’t a bust, even though I still had a bit of a headache. I was able to complete three sprints and surpassed my daily goal of 2000 words, with 2,076 words. I had wanted to take some time and write outside, but mother nature had different plans and sent a bunch of rain. So that plan didn’t happen, but I did write on the couch during sprints instead of at my desk. Though I probably won’t do that again, because it was really comfy and I almost fell asleep…lesson learned! I might try it again when I don’t have a headache though because I did enjoy watching Youtube sprints on my TV.

Sunday, Nov. 14th

Now Sunday I didn’t have a bad headache, so I did get a bunch of words in. Once again I surpassed my daily goal! Sunday night I participated in sprints on Twitch with a writer friend of mine and I was able to write 3,371 words in four sprints. That pushed me past that 40k mark which of course made me super happy!

Ended the night with two new badges on the NaNoWriMo site, both the 14 days in a row and the 40K badge! Am I the only one that enjoys collecting the badges each year? I know, I’m probably the only weirdo who does. The site also shows me finishing and winning NaNo on November…

All in all, Sunday was a great day and my best day this week!

So how was your writing this past weekend? Are you participating in NaNo this year, if so let me know how you’re doing in the comments below. Oh and make sure you’re following me over on Instagram, I update daily on there.

NaNoWriMo Day 11

Thursdays aren’t normally a writing day for me, but since my mom had an appointment near our Barnes and Noble I decided I would get some work done while she was in her appointment. I got little over a thousand words in before it started getting really busy in the cafe so I packed up my stuff and headed out, but hey that’s another thousand words added to my total.

The main reason I don’t really writing on Thursdays is that I tend to be very busy on those days, I’m part of a choir and our weekly practice is on those nights. Between homeschool and that I’m non stop all day and most of the night. So just getting that thousand words was awesome to me.

NaNoWriMo Journal Day 9 & 10

Day 9 and 10 were pretty rough for me. I did however reach my goals each day, it was just a bit harder to actually get those words! That’s the reason I’m fitting both days into one blog post. Figured it would be a bit easier and it wouldn’t be a crazy short blog post. Anyway, here’s where I’m standing where the words are concerned.

Day 9

When I started day 9, I was at 26,274 words total. By the end of the day, I was sitting at 30,000 words! Ended up with over 3,000 words that day. Not bad for a day that I wasn’t feeling 100%. I did, however, end up trying to get some writing outside and enjoyed every single minute of that.

I also found that a bunch of my favorite authors are doing sprints over on Twitch, so I learned the joys of that! Joined in a few of those sprints and had a blast.

Day 10

Day 10 was another hard day for me, I didn’t get much sleep the night before and I just didn’t feel good. I did once again go over my goal though, YAY Me!! I wrote 2,836 words bringing my overall NaNoWriMo total to 32,193 words! Super excited. That puts me at almost 65% finished. I’m so close to having the first draft of Second to Fall finished.

Also according to the NaNo site, I’m going to have the first draft finished by next week! Yeah, I don’t bank on that one, but it would put me right around the same time I finished last year. Which is crazy to think about.

I also hit that 10 day in a row streak! (totally took this image at 12:02 AM that’s the reason it says 0 words for the day.) Though I do love how it states that I only need to write 891 words a day from now on.

Anyway, how is your NaNo project coming? I would love to know more about it. Let me know in the comments below. Oh and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter, I have tons of new information coming very soon about First to Fight book 1 and the whole series. CLICK here to join today!

NaNoWriMo Journal Day 8: Balance! What’s that again?

Wow, where is the time going? It’s already day 8 of NaNoWriMo. Anyway, let’s get to the daily update shall we, today I wrote a total of 2,474 words. That brings my NaNo total to 26,274 words. I reached and surpassed the 25,000-word mark. That means I’m a little over halfway finished! It’s so crazy to think about being over halfway through with Second to Fall’s first draft. Oh my goodness.

You Speak of Balance, What Even Is That?

As you already know if you’ve been following my blog posts, that I participate in NaNoWriMo every year, at least for the past five years or so. I love writing during NaNo every year, honestly, I look forward to it. I love a good challenge and 50,000 words in a month is A CHALLENGE! The main thing I struggle with during NaNo each year though is balance. Trying to balance my writing time with normal everyday things that I have to get accomplished.

I’m a homeschool mom as well as an author, so it’s really hard to balance all the things I have to do as well as get that writing time in. I’m also a stay-at-home single mom of two teenagers, I have a beautiful new house that I have to keep clean and running. It takes a lot to keep the balance between all these things and also take care of myself. I’m sure I’m not the only one that has this problem. (At least I hope I’m not the only one! Please someone let me know I’m not the only one who struggles with this.)

I’m also trying to balance writing the second book with getting everything ready to publish the first book in the series. That alone is a lot to try to wade through. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m attempting to learn balance. Yep, I said attempting, it’s not always going to be perfect and it’s not always going to work. But I’m trying and I guess I should give myself credit for that…right? I tend to really focus on one project at a time, I guess I need to find a way to split that up. HMMM maybe do sprints as I do with my writing time, I wonder if that would work. Have any of you done this?

Anyway, here’s a look at what is all on my plate today!

I also need to add to do some self-care in there as well, since that was the item I need to do on my NaNo bingo board. So I guess I should add a facemask in there too. YIKES, I have so much to do. Though I have already got a few items checked off my to-do list. So there is that! It’s all about balance!

What’s on your to-do list today? Also, do you need to work on balancing everything as well? Let me know in the comments below! Also, this question is for those that do a good job finding that balance… how do you achieve everything that you need to do, and how do you not feel bad when you don’t?

NaNoWriMo Journal Day 6 & 7

I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle posting both Saturday and Sunday on here. So I figured putting both days together on the blog might be the answer. I hope you’re all doing great on your NaNo projects!

Day 6 of NaNo

Saturday was sort of a bust for me. I did however did write 1,380 new words. I didn’t reach my normal 2,000 words a day goal, but I ended up with a huge headache due to the crazy weather we’ve been having down here in FL. I was also fighting with a scene that I just couldn’t figure out exactly how to write, well more like I wasn’t ready to write it just yet. It’s a bit darker and angsty, honestly, I just wasn’t in the right mindset to jump into the angst. So after talking it over with my amazing Alpha reader, I ended up deciding to skip the scene, just make a few notes on it in my Scrivener document, and move on.

I’ll end up coming back to that scene when I’m ready to sit down and dive into the dark emotions of it. I was hoping that Sunday would be better, but…

Day 7 of NaNo

I don’t usually write on Sunday’s but during NaNo I try to at least get a few hundred words. I was shooting for 500 words, but again with a headache and the time change messing with me, I ended up only getting 300 new words. Though I think that’s pretty good for a Sunday for me.

Again I’m hoping that Monday will be better, but only time will tell!

How are you doing with your NaNo project?

NaNoWriMo Journal Day 5

Day 5, wow where did the week go? For anyone that is behind, remember you can do this and it’s only day 5 you have plenty of time to catch up or get ahead.

Today went pretty well, I hit my normal 2,000 word goal and stopped. Though that really has to do with the scene that I have to write next. It’s one that I have no clue how to begin and it’s filled with a lot of angst. I’m trying to give myself a little boost to write it, but it’s just not happening. Going to think about it over night. I might skip it and come back to it later. I guess we shall see tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Double Down Day in the sprinting group I’m part of, so I’m hoping to get a bunch of words in. Anyway, this is going to be another short post.

My Total for Day 5

How are you doing? Are you participating, if you are let me know in the comments below.

NaNoWriMo Journal Day 4

So it’s already day 4! Like I said in yesterday’s post, the Kyle’s book is really coming together. I’m enjoying my time writing this one. Though it is dark at points and right now I’m in the middle of writing a really hard sad couple of scenes. To cheer myself up yesterday, something I needed due to the scene I was writing making me cry, I started coloring the Color Your Way To 50K page in my copy of the Preptober workbook from author Natalia Leigh. 

I really enjoy filling in this page in the workbook, mainly because it gives me a writing break and sometimes while going through NaNoWriMo you need that. At least I know I do.

Tracking My Words

I was asked yesterday how I track my word count and all of that. This year I’m trying something a little new. Usually I track my words on my paper tracker. (Like the one in the image below.) I do most of my writing in sprints, so I just use this sprint tracker.

Like I said above though, this year I’m doing something a little different, I am using the tracker above, but I’m also tracking everything in my Notion. I love both ways for different reasons. I’ve always been a paper and pen kind of girl. Loving new notebooks and pens, but when I saw author Sarra Cannon’s Notion layout I knew I wanted to try it. So I pretty much set mine up as close to her’s as I could. You can check her video out HERE.

The reason I’m loving Notion so much, is because I can go back say next Preptober and see exactly what I was working on when. I can go back during NaNo next year or the following and see how many words I was writing at any given day. I love that I can go back and see. With paper planners and trackers, it’s hard to keep all that data and paper around that long.

Anyway, so day 3 my word count for the day was…

I hope you’re all doing great on your NaNoWriMo projects, let me know in the comments how you’re month is going so far.

NaNoWriMo Journal Day 3

So it’s day 3 of NaNo already, time sure does fly. Today’s post is going to be a bit of a short one. Anyway, so far I think I’m doing pretty well. I’m getting in the groove of writing this book and I’m super excited to share it with all of you in 2022! Fingers crossed.

Throughout the day I’ve been writing some really hard scenes like I’m sitting here crying my eyes out while writing scenes. I just hope that those scenes and emotions transfer to the pages so readers will feel that emotion as well while reading.

Day 3 ended and my final total for the day was 4,061 new words for a NaNo total of 17,619 total words. I can’t believe I’m already almost at 20,000 words!

Like I said today’s post is going to be short and sweet. I hope you’re all doing great, how’s your NaNo project coming along? Let me know in the comments below!

NaNoWriMo Journal Day 2

Daily Update

It’s day 2 of NaNoWriMo 2021 and I’m loving my progress so far. I didn’t sit down and plan to write tons today like I did yesterday, but I ended up with 4,035 words added to my total. The best part about it is I actually like the words I’ve written so far. Sometimes while writing for NaNo I look at the words and I’m like yeah those words will not be left like that when I go to self-edit, but so far I’m loving everything I’ve written.

I wrote a really sad emotional scene today and I was sitting at my desk crying my eyes out while I wrote it. I’m hoping that means something. I mean if I can make myself cry, hopefully, that means my readers will connect with the scene as well. Fingers crossed!

I really got in the groove yesterday, didn’t participate in as many sprints as the first day, but the words were flowing and I didn’t want to stop. But I had to mainly because my kiddos decided they wanted to play a game and well I really enjoy that time with them. Anyway, I participated in a total of five sprints, each of those running for 25 minutes at a time with five-minute breaks in between. Those are the ones where I really get into the flow of writing. It’s like my sweet spot when it comes to time.

Didn’t get any prizes today, but I’m really close to reaching my next goal. According to the NaNo site, I should finish NaNo by next week, not sure that will happen, but it’s a good motivator.

My Stats Right Now

As of the end of day 2, I’m sitting at 13, 558 words. I’ve completed 18 of the 83 sprints that I need to do to finish my first draft. Which is super exciting! So far I’m doing great and can’t wait to start writing on day 3!

How was your NaNo Day 2?

So how was your day 2 of NaNo? Let me know in the comments below, I would love to cheer you on! Also, don’t forget to head over to my Facebook group or Instagram, if you would like to follow along more, I update throughout the day on both. I hope you’re all having a great day and doing fantastic on your NaNo projects!