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: 13,464

Words Written So Far: 15,021

Last Chapter of Rough Draft Completed: 4

Chapters To Go (subject to change): 16

Days Until November 30th Goal Date: 21

Thoughts?

When I was first looking into the concept of National Novel Writing Month, I was 75% excited, 25% doubtful. Could I write another book? Did I have another story in me? What if I did all of the recommended planning, only to sit down and draw a blank? What if I had to admit defeat and figure out another way/time to write something new?

I never expected to take to it so well. Every day since beginning on this project, I’ve surpassed my word-count goal. Though I’ve already strayed slightly from the outline and may have to remove an unnecessary character or two during the rewrite, the overall plan and character ideas have remained steadfast. And so far, aside from feeling a little fussy on Tuesday with it, it’s been amazing. I’d forgotten how soothing and fulfilling it felt to sit down and write fresh.

One thing I’m doing differently during the drafting of this story is keeping a notebook at my side and every time I come across something I’m unsure of, specifically things I need to research before rewrite, I jot down notes about it. Last time, I really didn’t do much research beforehand and I definitely didn’t keep a list of things in story-order. I’m hoping that this more organized approach helps me more during rewrite than practically ‘winging it’ did.

Goals For The Coming Week

During the next week, I am scheduled to write another 13,000 words, bringing me close to the 30k mark for this story. Knowing me, I’ll keep that goal in mind, but actually aim to hit that 30k overall mark and exceed expectations. I’m really loving this story and now that my MCs have met, I’m ready to write their love story in earnest.

Again, still no reading goals. I did pick up a short, light read over the weekend and if I have time, I may continue reading it. But there’s no pressure to finish it by a certain date, as I promised myself during the month of November.

Note To Self