Good Morning Everyone,
It is day fourteen of NaNoWriMo, and the word count goal for today is 23,666. I am currently sitting at 25,493! As seems to be the trend for the last couple of days, I haven't written yet today. All of my new words came into being at approximately 10:30 last night!
After having finished one of the chapters that I was really looking forward to writing, I realized that I had caught up to myself with my outline. Before NaNoWriMo started, I had tried to finish outlining my story, but had only managed to get to chapter fourteen, which was definitely not enough to get all of the story that was swimming around in my head onto paper. However, since that was what I had on November first, that is what I decided to roll with.
Yesterday, when I went to write my next chapter, I wasn't comfortable with winging it, especially when I know where I want the story to end up. I want it to get there in a way that I will be happy with. So instead of getting down to business (to defeat the huns) and writing right after I put up my blog entry yesterday, I sat down with Scrivener, and just worked out the next 7 chapters. It is still not quite the end of the story, but I could feel the end getting closer and closer as I was outlining the chapters.
To be honest, being able to feel the ending coming closer and closer like that... it was a bit terrifying. Generally speaking, my chapters aren't too long. My longest chapter so far in Scarlett (Cross my Heart and Hope to Die? I can't decide on a title now...) is just over two thousand words. Most of my chapters are between 1600 and 1800 words long. Due to this, I need close to thirty chapters to reach the fifty thousand word goal for NaNoWriMo. Yesterday when I was outlining, I reached chapter twenty-one, and could feel the ending approaching. It makes me worried that I won't hit the word goal at the end of the month, no matter how determined I am to do so.
When I set out to write this story this year, it felt longer than Ruins of the Heart, my novel from last year, in my head. I thought that I was going to surpass the fifty thousand word goal by at least ten thousand words. I feel like I am putting a lot of details into my chapters, I'm not just glossing over things and making the story move along faster than it should. Everything that I wanted to happen (and a few surprises along the way) have all happened and are continuing to happen.
I know that I will be happy if I finish my novel, no matter how many words it is, because it means that I have completed a novel AGAIN! I have never been very good at making commitments to do things and then following them through until the end. In fact, it was the one thing that my mother said would stop me from having my dream of publishing a novel realized. This would have been very true if I hadn't taken part in NaNoWriMo last year, and if I wasn't doing it again to pump out this manuscript, I probably wouldn't have finished it either. For this reason, finishing my manuscript, no matter how many words it has, will be a win.
Although, I really want another winner's certificate to hang on my wall...
I hope that you all are doing well, we are so close to being at the half-way mark! As always, if you have a Tablo account, leave your links down below so that I can give you a follow.
Lots of NaNo-Love,
Helen.
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