NaNoWriMo: A Work in Progress

November 13, 2018 at 6:00 am (NaNoWriMo, Time Management)

 

November is National Novel Writing Month #NaNoWriMo and I am solidly embroiled in writing my novel, “Unprepared.”

“Unprepared” is about a professor of agricultural engineering. When he loses his wife and daughter during a pandemic, he loses his will to live but he may be one of the few people in his town capable of helping his community survive and thrive.

I’m at 22,398 words, as of the writing of this post. I’ve been shooting for 2,000 words a day though the goal of NaNoWriMo is only 50,000 words in one month, which amounts to about 1,667 words per day. (Plus, I’ve started this novel every year for the last two years so I have 85 pages in a separate file put aside.)

I get up every morning and try to get 20 minutes of writing in before I leave for work. I can get another 20 minutes in during my lunch time. Then, I get another 20 minutes after dinner. Now, if I’ve been researching and thinking about the story during my drive to and from work so that I’m ready to write, that’s enough to get about 2,000 words in.

So far it’s going really well. Some words are better than others but it’s important to have words so you can edit. The research on this has been more in depth than anything I’ve written so far – learning about town water systems, waste treatment, and Comprehensive Emergency Management Plans. Cornell University’s web site has been a HUGE help.

I can’t wait to be able to say this novel is drafted!