NaNoWriMo Status Day 4
Progress! Progress! Progress!
Okay, maybe there wasn’t enough progress to warrant such an opening, but I’m trying to remain optimistic while consistently failing to meet my daily goal.
Today I edited the scene I finished yesterday, the one with the five new characters and the new setting - yeah, that one. I spent at least half my time editing that. And shame on me because editing doesn’t add to my word count! Or, if it does, it adds very little.
But my typical process, what I’m most comfortable doing, is starting at the last scene or chapter I left off at, reading it through, editing it, and then going on to the next scene. The reread of the last chapter or scene I wrote is what gets me into the groove to write the next segment, and it helps me ensure the story is flowing well, too. When writing my last novel, I’d often go back several chapters to read and edit them before writing more.
And if you’re thinking that method is hella time consuming, you’d be hella right.
I ran the numbers though, and it would seem I somehow managed to write an average of almost 1,900 words per day the last time around. But, and this is a really big but, when I started writing that novel, I did so because scenes from it had been playing in my head like a movie for months, and the scenes had become so numerous and overwhelming that I was having a hard time keeping track of them all. I remember writing 8,000 words in a single day at one point early on because I had to dump so much out of my head!
This novel, on the other hand, I’m writing without the benefit of the established internal movie, crafting as I go rather than doing massive brain dumps - and what a difference that makes. It’s certainly moving at a much slower pace.
Speaking of pacing, it’s time to get to today’s status report. We have a few changes to my tracking table. I shortened the date format and one of the other headings so things would take up less space. I also moved the “Words written per day” to the first column as that’s the most granular element. Plus, I removed the “Chapters” column as it’s not very necessary and eliminating it will allow the table to fit better on smaller devices.
| Daily Word Goal 2,251 - 2,418 | Total Word Goal 80,000 - 85,000 | # needed to be on track | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Words written | Current Word Count | to meet goal |
| Nov 1 | 2,684 | 15,162 | 14,813 |
| Nov 2 | 1,819 | 16,981 | 17,148 |
| Nov 3 | 1,093 | 18,074 | 19,943 |
| Nov 4 | 1,635 | 19,709 | 21,818 |
As you can see, I made a bit more progress today than yesterday, but still didn’t hit goal. And I fear tomorrow will be worse because I’ve run into an issue where I have a couple of scenes that need further separation, which will probably mean rejiggering my outline before I can continue writing. Fingers crossed that goes smoothly. I’m a wee bit nervous about it.
