So, I’m back at it again this November with NaNoWriMo.org. This is my 7th attempt at writing a complete first draft of a novel from scratch. And this year, I’m doing it 100% by hand. Yeah, I’m a bit nuts. My friend Jenn, in her blog, has decided to start keeping a daily log of her progress. (An idea she stole from this fellow, Jamie Grove, off his blog.)
In an attempt to explore my own writing life (the original purpose of this journal, right?) I think I will try and do the same. So here’s some quick reflections of my first two days into NaNoWriMo 2008.
Day One
Word Count: 2034
I started out just as I intended the story to begin, sort of at the end. I’ve got Autumn Chase in the Order safe-house, looking for the clue that will help her unlock the power of the lifebox that she has around her neck. I’m a bit worried that the plot moves faster than I am trying to write it but we’ll see how well this all works out in the future days. As far as writing with a fountain pen goes, I’m able to hold steady for 2000 words. I’m also able to do all those words with a single full cartridge of ink. So far, so good!
Day Two
Word Count: 2132 for a total of 4166
Today’s scene was all about some confrontation between Autumn and her new love interest, Chad Utah who materializes into the apartment somehow. I managed to write a lot of dialog and while not pushing the story forward so much but giving some background and chattery between the two. I still feel like my writing is bland but I hope things get more fun sooner.
I’m finding that writing a story longhand, is a bit tough. Two things make it tough. First, is the time it takes to get the words out. I’m able to write pretty quickly but it does take me two to three hours to write 2000 words or so down on paper. This is two or three times longer than what I can hammer out on Smudge, the Macbook. I’m able to get about 2000 words out in my word processor in about an hour and a half.
The other issue is with the word count. I’m counting in sets of 50 because my mind can’t handle it otherwise. And sometimes I have to double or triple back on the counting because I lose my place. I’m not sure if this is because I suck at numbers and counting or if it’s the unlined journal I’m writing in that is making it hard to get accurate and complete counts. I may either need to have kender start counting my work or start typing the story into my software to get an accurate account. Which was something I wanted to avoid doing this month.