As always, I’d like to begin this week’s progress report by thanking all of you awesome people who’ve followed, liked and/or commented on my blog!

Here are this week’s stats:

Words Written This Week: 1,557

Words Written So Far: 1,557

Last Chapter of Rough Draft Completed: n/a

Chapters To Go (subject to change): 20

Days Until November 30th Goal Date: 28

Thoughts?

First, LOOK at that new banner! Gorgeous, right? That was the branding I was talking about, along with the image on my newsletter pop-up, the banners on my Facebook author page and my Twitter account, as well as the signature block in my email. My branding was done by Jay Aheer of Simply Defined Art, so if you’re interested or in need of something similar, definitely check her out! I also decided to launch my Facebook author page early. I’d originally planned to open it on December 1 in conjunction with a) revealing the title of my first book and b) making my first book available for digital preorder. But, after thinking it over and considering that most of my attention will be focused on writing my second book during the month of November, I decided to unveil it early. Also, upon reflection, I decided that in addition to doing this for my sanity, I also wanted to be able to list ‘author’ as one of my job titles on Facebook. It’s a small thing and no, I’m not making any profit from my writing yet. But damn it, I’ve completed my first book and have started work on my second. I’ve poured time and money into this and I think, in all but earning a profit, I’ve earned the title.

Next, NaNoWriMo! The first day of National Novel Writing Month went very well for me. I was able to slightly surpass my goal of 1,500 words for day one and I wrote them in about an hour, hour and a half. I tossed and turned Wednesday night in anticipation of beginning and when my alarm went off at 7 am, I was up and ready to write by 7:30. Which brings me to my schedule for the next month. I plan on waking up at 7 am, Tuesday through Friday, in order to get in about three hours of writing time before work. I used to be a night writer, but in recent years, writing at night only amounts to me writing the weirdest stuff. By the light of day, most of what I write at night is either cheesy, goofy, or both. I find that I write much more coherently if I write in the morning/during the day.

On Saturdays, when I work during the day, I plan on writing right after dinner. I’ve purposely calibrated those days to be lighter days because the later it gets, the goofier my writing gets, as detailed above.

Sunday and Monday, my personal weekend days, will be my heavy writing days. I don’t plan on getting myself up at 7 am on those days, but as soon as I’m up and have had breakfast (hungry writing becomes frustrated writing becomes rage-quitting very quickly), I plan to get to work. Naturally, these will be my heavier writing days, as I don’t have the day job to contend with.

As you know if you read this blog with any regularity, this is my first go at NaNoWriMo and I’m a complete newb. But if you’d like to be my NaNo buddy anyways, you can find me here.

Goals For The Coming Week

I’m sitting at 48 books read for the year, so I have no plans to read during NaNoWriMo, in an effort to keep my attention focused and give my brain a break once my words are written each day.

As far as writing, I intend to write 10,500 words in the coming week, thereby completing Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of my second novel.

Note To Self