Day 13 was not as successful as I needed it to be. That meant I was digging out of a word count deficit on Day 14.
How can that be, you might ask.
NaNoWriMo is the challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. In order to “Win” the challenge, you need to write an average of 1,667 words every day for 30 days.
I was a bit short of that average on Day 13. By a bit, I mean about 500 words too few.
I grant you, 30 days sounds like a lot of time to get back on track. The risk is, you let your word count slide over and over to the point where it is virtually impossible to get to the finish line.
Day 14 saw me manage to dig out and get back on track. It meant a longer period of writing, but I got there and I got a couple much-needed scenes written.
A win all around
The new writing is leading to more scenes that need to be completed. This is also a big win. It is helping me prove out an alternate method of attack to this particular book (for those of you catching up, I’m not writing the story linearly this time for a number of reasons. It will ultimately mean a heavier load to edit but it also removes any concerns I might have traditionally had about adding new material late in the writing.
I think the new tactic will ensure I cover many of the dangling plot threads I’ve left myself in previous books.
The extra writing I had to do to catch is pushing me to write more and faster every day. That is also a good thing.
Day 15 writing goals
My writing time is a bit more limited on Day 15. I have some volunteer commitments that will be taking some time away so I will have to be more mindful of what I do when I get home.
Still, I’m hoping to write between 1,800 and 2,000 words. That will help me to build up a buffer. If I can keep that momentum up, I might even finish the challenge before November 30th.
A piece of the writing goals beyond words is a certain scene I need to write. It addresses one of those dangling threads I talked about earlier.
today’s word count: 2379 (Words written to date: 23,450)
