The First Half-Week of NaNoWriMo is in the Books
It’s been a four-day write-a-thon, and I’ve enjoyed each hour I’ve spent on my laptop creating stories. I’ve got 14,000 words written (most of which I plan to keep when I edit).
The work I did in preparation for NaNoWriMo paid off. I’ve been using the calendar and journal I purchased explicitly for Book 8’s character, Kay Hernandez. If her name sounds familiar, it’s because she was also in book two as Caroline Taft’s roommate.
She still loves her teaching career, and the church her new school is attached to. However, she’s almost 31 and is still scraping to get by. Like everyone else, her salary hasn’t been able to keep up with inflation. She’s not only working long hours in (and out) of the classroom, she’s also taken a second job as an Uber driver. Occasionally, she’ll work a third job waitressing at Great Events. Kay wouldn’t mind the crazy hours if it meant that paying for rent, groceries, and gas wasn’t such a struggle.
What I didn’t plan for was a second NaNoWriMo project. This is a YA novel I started months ago. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I forgot about it. True, we had a busy summer, but that hardly seems like a good excuse. I didn’t remember the book until my husband asked me if it was this year’s project. I told him it wasn’t, but then I thought, what if it was? I had about 20,000 words already written, so adding another 50,000 during NaNoWriMo will give me a complete rough draft. This one is centered on Sylvie Stade, the daughter of Topher and Denise, and how she adjusts to the move from Camp Galilee in Crystal Falls, Arizona, to her parents’ old hometown of Rhodes, California, a location from Book 1.
The stories are moving right along, and I enjoy getting to know the characters in depth.
As for the other “prep work”? Well, that’s paid off too. Because I’ve already planned the meals for the month, that’s one thing off my mind, so when dinnertime came around, I thought of it as a “break” after a long day of writing. From burgers and fries Sunday all the way to soup Saturday, suppertime has been a win.
Tonight’s tomatillo soup is off-the-charts delicious!
I’ve also planned for one more thing: to finish. In anticipation of reaching 100,000 words, I’ve ordered my annual NaNoWriMo t-shirt. But of course, I won’t open it until I’m done. It’s my wearable trophy.
The first full week isn’t quite up, but I’m loving the start and looking forward to completing my goals. Mainly because that will mean I have one and a half novel rough drafts finished and ready for rewrites. That will be worth all of the hours I’ve put in so far.
I understand that not every writer participates–or even approves–of NaNoWriMo, but for me, it works beautifully!
