NaNoWriMo: Weekly Update #1!

Week one of NaNoWriMo is over!

Which means that we are all at least slightly less sane than we were on November 1. As you can tell by the fact that I'm pretty late on this update.

I'm not going to even try to write an introduction, because I'm tired and worded out. So just enjoy this update. xD

(There are snippets, too. Messy snippets. Random snippets. Definitely not a snippet from each day because I'm not that organized but I hope you enjoy anyway.)

I had the whole day off, which was absolutely lovely. I started writing about 9:00 that morning, but I didn't quite power through thousands of words the way I'd imagined myself doing all day... I get quite distracted, people. xD

But, despite not knowing how I wanted the story to start at all going in, I actually found it quite easy to write the whole first chapter once I got started. And... I actually loved it. :O Of course, it's more than subject to change later, but as for right now, I think it's the perfect beginning to this story and these characters.

OH YEAH AND THE CHARACTERS. Guys, literally a few paragraphs in I was already getting emotional because I love these characters so much. xD Trentley and Jynnia are legit the SWEETEST and I want all the best for them. And maybe it's weird to talk about your own characters like that but HEY. Don't judge me. I love them, okay?

I took a break in the afternoon and didn't get back to writing until that evening. I only wrote a few hundred words, but it took me over 3k, so I was pretty happy with that! It's not my record word count for the first day of NaNo, but I've almost doubled my target count so I'm content. Plus I bought some chocolate, so I'm ready for the next few days at least. xD

Word count: 3018

My opening lines, which I'm a little bit in love with. 

Work and family time kept me away from my story until after 8:00 that night. I finally sat down to write... and got stuck.

This is what happens when you don't outline, people.

I wish I was the kind of person who outlined religiously. It's so much easier to just write and write and write without stopping that way. But no, I'm the kind of person who waits until there's no time left to plan her story and then realizes I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S SUPPOSED TO EVEN HAPPEN IN THIS THING. So, that's how my NaNo's going to go.

BUT as I sat and thought and thought and thought (such an exciting time), something came to me that I think this story needs. And it'll help me move things forward.

Also, apparently I either thought too much or too little because one of the sentences I wrote that day was "she smoothed her napkin in her lapkin."

NaNo is claiming my soul already. 

Word count: 722

First of all, I just want to say that the first few hundred words of this day were written after midnight... so I considered them to be written the day before. But the NaNo website doesn't agree with me. So. That's why my word count for yesterday was so low. *rolls eyes*

Church and family time kept me away from writing for much of the day (I'm going to have to do something about that family of mine...), but I still got a good bit of writing done. I did some in the morning before church (thank you, Daylight Savings Time, for giving me that extra hour of sleep!!) and then some in the evening.

I'd been listening mostly to my playlist I made for this story, but this day I branched out and listened to a bunch of Ivan Torrent's music. His stuff is seriously amazing, guys. (Thanks Alexa, for introducing me to it!)

Word count: 3156

I'm having way too much fun writing a straight-up sappy couple.

Don't run away yet, it's not as bad as it sounds. But guys, I've intentionally kept romance out of my books. Not because I have a problem with it, just because most of my books don't need it and I see no reason to put it where it doesn't belong. And then I come along and write a FAIRY TALE ROMANCE. It's quite different for me, but I'm actually having a blast. xD Trentley and Jynnia are my OTP, not gonna lie.

Anyway, this day I was able to get quite a few words in, despite having to work. In fact, I wrote the most this day than I have any other day so far, AND I hit 10k!!

I'm so happy about this, because I'm pretty sure this is the earliest I've ever reached this milestone! The story is flowing along pretty well, and I'm having so much fun. I didn't outline a thing and planned precious little, so the fact that I haven't gotten stuck yet is actually amazing.

Word count: 3299

So, as per the normal writer's behavior, I spent all day at work thinking about my story and JUST WANTING TO GET HOME AND WRITE ALREADY. And then, lo and behold, I got home and avoided writing like the plague. xD

BUT I was able to get wordsss in! (way too late at night, yes. but shhhhh.) I thought I was going to write the turning point of the story this day, but I didn't quite get there. Words were racking up, though, and this just meant I had an exciting scene to springboard off of the next day! ;D

Also, for the past few days I've written more every day! Which I'm super excited about.

Word count: 3325

On this day I didn't start writing until about 11:30 PM. I only wrote a few hundred words. And there's really no more that I need to say about that. xD

Word count: 512

In which Jynnia is a total rebel and doesn't even care.

I'm actually pretty proud of myself for this day. I didn't get a ton of words written-- although I did make my daily word count goal set by NaNo--, but I made time to write. Even though this was my day off, I knew I was going to be gone most of the day and pretty late, so I set aside a few minutes in the morning to write before I left my house. And I think I got the majority of my word count down then. That night I was able to catch up and make it past the "required" 1.6k.

I also wrote The Thing this day. Aka, the moment in every story that you look most forward to writing right off the bat, where everything starts going crazy. ;D (Also, fun fact: I wrote The Thing on day seven of NaNoWriMo last year, too!)

Word count: 1864

Total word count for the week: 15896

I'm super happy with my word count this week! Last year my word count for week 1 was only 9.6k. I'm not sure how it went the previous years, but I think 15k might be my record for this point in the game.

The writing's still going pretty smoothly. I had a bit of a discouragement as I was talking to my brother about my story and we throwing around all these different ideas and questions and I realized... there's still SO MUCH about this story that I don't know.

But this is just the first draft, and while it's a LOT smoother than my past several first drafting attempts have been, I know it's going to get messy. That's okay. I'm still having so much fun and I can't wait to see where the rest of this story goes. :D

Also, this is super random, but I just wanted to say that I have another story coming to Havok this month! Careful What You Hunt For will be published on Thanksgiving, November 28th. I'm so excited and, well, thankful. ;D Can't wait to share it with you all!!

And with that, thanks for reading! AND KEEP WRITING!

How was your first week of NaNo? Is it going as expected, better or worse? What's your favorite thing about your story so far? And can you believe Thanksgiving is so close??