NaNoWriMo Status Day 5
Today’s status includes mostly invisible progress with a smattering of visible progress.
What do I mean by invisible progress, you ask?
Well, even if you didn’t, what I’m referring to are things that, in my opinion, need to get done but don’t run up the word count. Today, it was reading the entire novel.
While I realize reading the novel may not seem like progress at all, I did so constantly with my last novel, and I swear by it. This may be different for other writers but, for me, there’s no way to know if it’s any good, if it’s flows, if it has any chance of holding a reader’s interest, etc., if I don’t continually check for all those elements - and that requires reading (and editing) it many, many times. I haven’t been doing that because I’ve been so focused on trying to reach my daily word count goal, but I couldn’t let it go any longer. At the beginning of today, I was nearly 20,000 words in had no idea if it was any good and that just doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
That said, it is very difficult for a writer to judge their own writing. We’re too close to it. Still, we must do the best we can. So, I read it and think it might be at least okay, if not pretty good, and maybe, possibly, even good - maybe. That’s the same exact way I felt about my last novel and, based on nearly all reviews so far, that one was far better than good. (sidebar - I feel like I set such a high bar on the first one that I’m incredibly nervous my second won’t measure up)
I also mentioned the possibility of having to rejigger my outline, and I did end up adding a couple of scenes. What’s more important though is that I’m learning that the 41 point outline I drafted this time is proving more helpful than the 8,000+ word outline I created last time. So much of my last outline ended up tossed or drastically changed. This time, my outline is obviously at a higher level, yet it has just enough to keep me on track so I hit all the must-have information and scenes, while simultaneously allowing me to do a good deal of discovery-style writing.
I’m finding I like this hybrid. It’s like writing by the seat of my pants, aka pantsing, but with just enough structure so I don’t go off the rails.
In any case, I’d better get to today’s progress:
| 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 |
| Nov 5 | 1,777 | 21,486 | 24,153 |
Didn’t hit my daily goal again but, considering I took the time to read (and do some editing on) everything I have so far, I feel like I still managed to get a lot done. And hey, I’m over 21,000 words in. That’s pretty good.
