NaNoWriMo Progress Post 1 – M. J.

This is not the novel I planned to write next.

See, I wanted to write a stand-alone book (with series potential, but stand-alone). I have the story, the world, the characters. I even have the first three chapters! Written ages ago, but they are some of the best first draft chapters I have ever written.

What am I working on instead? The second in a seven-book series. Why? Because my writer-brain is sado-masochistic like that.

Here’s the thing: I’m not doing NaNo. Not really. No account, no word count goal . . .

Granted, it’s hard to have a word count goal when I write drafts longhand and can only estimate.

But this is not a NaNo novel. I started it in October and do not expect to finish it this month. I am, however, ecstatic to be writing a novel in conjunction with NaNo. The energy, the enthusiasm, the motivation is a palpable thing, and this year I am feeding off it like a succubus. Without the sex.

For the sake of keeping track of progress (because that’s always fun), I’m estimating how many chapters this book will run and using that as my marker. This is how it looks this week:

 

 

6 / 30 chapters. 20% done!