NaNoWriMo 2020 Week 2

Day 2: 2,040 words. I really struggled with being distracted during the day (supporting both my girls throughout their school day, laundry, etc.) but once I was able to focus, the words started flowing. I’m dancing through this space in the story where lies are clouding the communication between my characters and it’s leading to some hard truths they are all going to have to face. But that is tomorrow’s journey. 🙂

Day 3: 1,517 words. Today I had to work around my need for escapism from the worry about what would happen as a result of the election in our country. I allowed myself to binge one of my favorite nostalgic shows (Dawson’s Creek) in the afternoon and then dug deep into my story after a lovely dinner with my family. It was the right choice. I was able to focus and follow two of my lead characters, one from the first book in this trilogy and one from the second, as they begin to revolve around each other in this, book three. They are both alpha females and watching them react to each other and work through the other’s communication styles was fascinating. I don’t have a solid hold on how they will move around each other in this world, and I’m super excited to see how it continues to unfold.

Day 4: 1,854 words. I am struggling HARD with the ‘this draft is going to be great’ desire and the ‘this is going to be a crappy first draft like every other crappy first draft’ reality. Every time I completed a section of dialogue or wrote a paragraph describing what’s happening today, my editorial voice kicked in with comments like ‘wow, that’s a nice sentence you’ll have to rewrite later’ or ‘huh, I didn’t know we could write such dull dialogue.’ That voice was very distracting during my writing session in the early afternoon, so I sent her off with some chocolate and focused back on the action of the story in the evening. 🙂 I got to pull in some of my favorite character traits today as my characters confronted each other and had a hard conversation. They’ve made the decision to move forward one way and tomorrow will be for the first wave of fallout for it.

Day 5: 1,790 words. It feels like a ping-pong tournament in my head. Ping: that sentence really stinks. Pong: this is a first draft, it’s not going to be the best yet. Ping: yeah but don’t you, like, write a lot? Shouldn’t you be better at this? Pong: I am good at this. Now hush so I can concentrate. At least it was a shorter match today. Today’s writing held a lovely surprise in a moment of stillness for two of my characters, where we get to see them have space together in quiet even though there’s a lot happening around them.

Day 6: 1,785 words. I broke 10,000 words today! I also hit the end of Act 1 and am diving into Act 2. It’s a day earlier than I expected, but I didn’t want to slow the natural momentum of the story. I have to say, going into this process has both the excitement and elation I always feel when completing the NaNoWriMo challenge, but also the exhaustion that all things feel like they carry in the pandemic. I’m working hard to acknowledge those feelings so they do not become too much to bear and then move on. Leaving behind the first Act of the story and dealing with the physical leaving that the characters were doing was also heavy. These groups that have been the only stability they have within this world are everything and to do all of this took a lot from my characters. They are living one of my families core values and mantras, that we can do hard things.

Day 7: 1,776 words. Well, a character that should have gone one place, decided to go another place. That certainly wasn’t what I thought the plan was.

Day 8: 1,652 words. This character showing up where she shouldn’t be has really thrown me. I’m not sure what it’s going to mean when the group gets where they’re going or how what’s supposed to happen will happen.

Happy Writing!