Writing Update: NaNoWriMo 2020

So I meant to write this post for last Sunday but once I hit the 50K mark for NaNo, I was so exhausted that I just didn’t feel like writing a blog post or the rest of the novel. It happens.

I hit 50K a couple days early with every intention to keep going with the story until it was finished. But that didn’t exactly happen either. I wrote one more day and then took a mini break. A few of those days were busy with other things and I also hit a point in the story where I felt like I didn’t know where I was going with this. Where I didn’t have enough research to really write this book. Where I didn’t feel like I had enough ideas.

But a couple days into December, I made myself sit down and at least try. I wrote a lot of words. Then I had a few days where I wrote a little amount of words. It’s been a bit back and forth since then. I haven’t been writing every day, but I’m making progress. After NaNo, I had about 15-ish chapters left to write and maybe 25K? or 30K? I don’t really know the word count. I’m focusing more on finishing chapters based on an outline I wrote up.

I share all this just to remind myself and whoever else out there that every writing project works differently. Some are going to be easy breezy to get words down and the story recorded on the page. Some are going to be a bigger process that takes longer or more effort or just more time. I’m trying not to worry about all the work I’ll have to do after I finish a (very messy) first draft of this story. Instead, I’m just trying to get the bare bones down so I can take the time to research and add those details that bring the story to life.

I’ve made some discoveries about the story along the way, which definitely affects the ending I have planned out. But I like the direction it’s moving and I’m so ready to be done with it.

I’m not sure what I’ll work on after this draft is finished. I’ve got several projects that I worked on earlier this year that have been tugging at my brain for attention again. It’s interesting because most of these projects are ones I’ve been working on for a while now and I realized it’s been a long time since I started something brand new. I used to have so many ideas that I’d jump from project to project, leaving so many unfinished stories behind. Maybe this is a sign that I’m growing as a writer. I hope so.

Speaking of new projects, I did start a serial story with a group of friends. It’s just a fun exercise for us to write on the side, but I’m loving it so much. It’s a weird mash-up of fairy tales that reminds me of a bit like Enchanted meets Shrek. It’s so fun to slip in subtle fairy tale references and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.

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