So on Saturday I made it past 25,000 words on my NaNoWriMo effort, which is right on target — and my Songseeker story is above 33,000 words total, which is better progress than I’ve made on any story, ever.
For my characters, things are about to get Very Bad… and it’s exciting to see the conflict starting!
However… I think my NaNoWriMo push must end for now, because I’m using my precious working time to write and I’m not getting as much art done as I need to. Therefore, I am going to shift focus. I’m not quitting NaNoWriMo, but my goal is going to change to “write every day” instead of “write 2,000 words a day”. This means I’m probably not going to finish the 50,000 words this month. But what I will do is have a bit of creative balance, as I will write when I need a break from my other creative work.
What the first 15 days of November have taught me is that I can crank out 1,000 words in an hour, with regularity. Give me 3 months of 1,000 words a day, and I would have a complete novel. I can totally do that. And I should. More.
Another thing I’ve learned in the past 15 days is that while I can get 1,000 words an hour, those words are by no means refined…! Songseeker is full of characters that come and go without explanation, and there are a lot of plot- and conflict-related things that need polishing before they have the right punch. I’ll have to give it a good scrubbing before I make it public. But I’m excited about it! And that’s good!