Hello! Today is Saturday, November 9, 2019 which means we are officially on DAY 9 of NaNoWriMo! How is it going for everyone? Good? Great? Horribly? Meh? (If I, personally, had to describe NaNoWriMo 2019 in one word, it might be “meh.”)

When I woke up this morning to get my words in, I felt very much like procrastinating, which led me here to write down my first week recap (Friday, Nov. 1 – Friday, Nov. 8).

First, let’s do a quick background check.

NaNoWriMo 2019 – BACKSTORY

First things first, this is my – *gasp* – 11th year doing NaNo. Technically, it’s my 12th because in 2013 I logged my word count as I worked on approximately three projects at once but I didn’t quite make it to 50,000 words (your girl got to 47,000 and then called it quits). My first year participating in NaNoWriMo was 2006 when I was a senior in high school (oops, I just aged myself, didn’t I?) and I wrote my second full-length novel, a historical fiction YA set during World War II and let’s just say it was pretty horrible.

Regardless, for the next four years (aka all throughout college) I lived for NaNoWriMo. I am a fast drafter. Drafting is my favorite part of the writing experience. So NaNoWriMo feels like it was made for me. I raced against myself and my buddies year after year after year.

Then I went to law school and let’s just say it became pretty obvious pretty fast that I was going to have to choose either NaNo or passing my classes and I suppose I made the smart choice and chose passing my classes. Which meant I had to take a NaNo hiatus.

In 2014 I was back and ready to rock… except that project ended up being a disaster. But, I managed to log 50,000 words, even though most of those words were on the manuscript that eventually got me my agent, not my actual NaNo project. In 2015 – 2017 I wrote a variety of projects purely for fun.

2018 was a different NaNo year because it was my first NaNo as an agented writer. Which added some pressures. And also I decided 2018 should be the year I beat my personal NaNo record of 50,000 words in 11 days and somehow wrote 50,000 words with a full time job in, wait for it, 8 days.

EIGHT DAYS. Look, I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone. (1) I legit had bruises on my wrists from where my hands hit against my laptop keyboard; (2) my back hurt; and (3) I was so sick of that manuscript that every time I tried to revise it I wanted to throw my computer across the room. To this day, it’s still not revised.

Which now brings us up to date. NaNoWriMo 2019.

NaNoWriMo 2019 – “Preptober”

I am a pantser, so I don’t do an official “preptober” other than figuring out my goals for NaNo and figuring out which project I want to work on.

The difference between this year and years past is I wrote a second book over the summer and finished up revisions in the fall. In fact, I turned my revisions into my agent the day before NaNoWriMo.

Which is to say a few things (can you tell I like lists?): (1) I was feeling a bit burnt out going into NaNo 19; (2) I hadn’t brainstormed or worked out what my new project would be following my most recent project; and (3) I didn’t want to invest myself in NaNo too much in case I had to do more revisions during November.

So, after much back and forth, I decided that my NaNoWriMo 2019 project would be something purely for fun, not for any other reason. Which has been a relief because when I start writing a bunch of nonsense for the sole purpose of getting my word count for the day, I don’t feel guilty about it or cringe and think Oh, this is going to be a pain to revise. Nope, I have the freedom to write complete and utter garbage because it’s just for fun!

The other thing I promised was to NOT race. Reminder, I wrote 50,000 words in 8 days last year. Meaning last year at this time, I had completed my NaNoWriMo duties. This year, my goal was to take my time. I still wanted to complete NaNo prior to Thanksgiving, so my official goal is 2,000 words a day, which, because I am a fast drafter, is totally manageable.

So what is my project, you ask?

Um, well, it’s kind of embarrassing. When I was a kid, I had this character who I considered to be my male alter ego named Robin, and every Christmas I would write little Christmas stories about Robin and his family. Around mid-October or so, I got this idea for a story that would totally work in my “Robin universe” for a Christmas story.

And that, my friends, is how MISFITS & MISTLETOE was born.

Here is my poorly written, not super original pitch/summary:

When a bored college student is mistaken as the heir to a fortune, he decides to cash in. What he doesn’t expect to find is a family he desperately wants to be a part of. If he doesn’t come to terms with his own complicated family history, he might lose out on the thing he wants most: unconditional love. THE SCAPEGOAT x THE DEATH OF MRS WESTERLY

All I’ll really say is it’s turned into a bit of a murder mystery, has some gothic Daphne DuMaurier elements, and has this romance that has been a blast to write.

NaNoWriMo 2019 – Week One

Let’s start with some statistics.

As of November 8, 2019, my word count was 24,062. I am ahead of schedule, both NaNo’s schedule and my personal goal of 2,000 words a day. I will admit that I wanted to reach 25,000 by the end of Friday but I didn’t quite make it. I am averaging about 3,000 words a day but mostly thanks to a high word count on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Otherwise, I’m mostly writing 2,000 words a day.

Here’s a day-by-day breakdown:

Friday, November 1
Words Written: 2,238
Total Count: 2,238

I had to write most of these words at work because my boyfriend and I traveled to Michigan for a family obligation. On a typical day, I’m able to write 1,000 in the morning while I drink my tea and another 1,000 at lunch. I could technically get 2,000 done at lunch but I usually need a Twitter break.

Saturday, November 2
Words Written: 2,078
Total Count: 4,316

Saturday was full of family time in Michigan with my boyfriend’s family. Both of his brothers were in town. I managed 1,000 words when I first woke up in the morning and then we had some downtime before lunch so I wrote another 1,000.

Sunday, November 3
Words Written: 5,979
Total Count: 10,295

I was pretty excited to reach 10,000 on Day 3. That felt like a huge accomplishment to me even though I’d vowed not to rush. I think I was essentially getting ready to wrap up Act 1 at this time. Part of the reason I was able to get such a high word count was because my boyfriend had a meeting at school so I chilled and wrote while I waited for him, which gave me about an hour and a half of uninterrupted time. As a bonus, I couldn’t log onto the internet which kept my distractions limited. Because I was on such a roll, I got home that afternoon and kept writing.

Monday, November 4
Words Written: 2,005
Total Count: 12,300

On this particular day I went back to my weekday plan of writing 1,000 in the morning and another 1,000 at lunch and then… happy that I’d reached my goal, I didn’t write again in the evening.

Tuesday, November 5
Words Written: 3,874
Total Count: 16,174

I’m actually surprised this was such a productive day for me. In the morning I was on such a roll that instead of writing 1,000 I wrote 2,000. Then I wrote another 1,000 at lunch. I’m surprised I was able to get close to another 1,000 that evening because I went to a happy hour, squeaked out my near 1,000 words, and then watched The Little Mermaid Live (which I didn’t hate if I’m being honest – but what can I say, I love that movie!).

Wednesday, November 6
Words Written: 3, 832
Total Count: 20,006

Let’s be real here, I just wanted to get to 20,000 words. Again, 1,000 words in the morning, 1,000 at lunch, and then I was able to get nearly 2,000 additional words before I left work for the evening (staying late). But, something happened that hurt my productivity.

I got a new idea for what I think will be my next manuscript. You know, the one that I’ll share with my agent and the one that I hope will someday go on submission to editors. That sort of idea.

But more on that in a bit.

Thursday, November 7
Words Written: 2,037
Total Count: 22,043

Okay. Now that I had this new idea swirling around in my mind, working on my silly Christmas NaNoWriMo project was not nearly as enticing as, say, working on figuring out the nooks and crannies of this new, exciting project. Still, I forced myself to stick to the plan: 1,000 in the morning, 1,000 at lunch.

Also, my boyfriend’s car had to go into the shop and, um, my car has been in the shop (because I scratched the whole backseat passenger side door), which meant we were down to one car between us, a rental car only I’m allowed to drive. So I had to pick my boyfriend up from the auto shop, take him to school, drive home, stream Nancy Drew on the CW (of course), and then go pick boyfriend up again.

So obviously I was too distracted by life and by this exciting new novel idea to work on NaNo. But hey, 2,000 words is 2,000 words so it’s FINE.

Friday, November 8
Words Written: 2,019
Total Count: 24,062

Alrighty. Friday was tough because I had to take my boyfriend to school in the morning (his car was still in the shop and mine is stuck in the shop until TUESDAY) but I still got my 1,000 words in. Then lunch came but oh no, I did NOT want to work on NaNo because by this point I had a whole playlist for my new novel idea and I was much more into brainstorming character names for said new novel.

My friend pointed out I could definitely just stop working on this “just for fun” NaNo project and start working on said new exciting project, but I’m also not quite ready to dive into a “serious” project. As a reminder, I just turned revisions into my agent on another project on Halloween and we still have to do line edits (and that’s assuming we don’t have any more actual revisions to do) to get that one in shape. So in the meantime, I’m still plugging away on NaNo project for fun.

Anyway, got another 1,000 words done at lunch with every intention of revisiting to reach 25,000 words. Instead of revisiting it after work, I left work early to pick my boyfriend up, took him to pick his car up, went to the grocery store, and then we may have done some wine tasting at Whole Foods (we fancy).

And let’s just say I bow down to anyone who can drink wine and be productive because when I drink wine my productivity goes OUT THE WINDOW. So no, I did not touch NaNo again.

But hey, it’s a new day, a new week. (*ahem* I may only have the minimum 2,000 words done for the day. But it’s OKAY.)

That, my friends, wraps up my weekly NaNoWriMo check-in. We’ll see if I have an update for you next week. Obviously I’d love to write another 25,000 words and reach the 50,000 goal so I can start focusing more on this new project that I’m 100 times more excited about, but we’ll see. If I had to guess, I think this week will see lower word counts, which is fine.

However, I am at the midpoint and this midpoint is pretty exciting, so that might get me going. I still want to write another 1,000 – 2,000 words today but I’m also reading HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS by Erin A. Craig and it’s SO GOOD. So what I’m saying is there’s a good chance I’ll spend the rest of the day reading instead of writing.

WHICH IS FINE.

I hope you all enjoyed my weekly check in! How is NaNoWriMo going for you?

Also, if you’d like to be buddies or see more about my project, my NaNo username is endless-story! I am always looking for new friends. 🙂

(Bonus: when I made my NaNoWriMo account back in 2006, I was obsessed with the manga/anime/live action film “Nana,” including the song “Endless Story” by Yuna Ito for the movie. Hence my user name!)