NaNoWriMo 2016 daily diary
Tuesday 1st November525 words before work, 2009 total. Introduced a couple of shady characters I didn't have planned out before I started writing. Hoping to stick to my usual rhythm of 2000 words a day. Created a Pandora station seeded with Vivaldi to use as a writing soundtrack.
Wednesday 2nd NovemberGood writing session before work, took my Mac laptop with me to write at lunch and after work. Wednesdays are not going to be easy for writing, I have 3 hours in Tracy's Karate in Chesterfield for my private lesson, then group class, then sparring class. Two days in a row I have written 2009 words, that is weird.
Thursday 3rd NovemberMy novel went meta, my main character is a journalist who is brainstorming what makes a good story. No writing at lunch today, had lunch with a friend at Olympia instead. I feel like I've written a lot of filler so far but some characters are starting to deviate from my original plan. That's usually a good sign so I'm letting them go with it. No evening writing today, there was beer with dinner.
Friday 4th NovemberToday is pay day, and a vacation day, I get to novel all day. Since I slacked off yesterday, I had to cross the 5k mark before breakfast to get level with the NaNoWriMo standard for yesterday. Working on disrupting my character's lives today. Discovering a bunch of new composers via Pandora, Georg Phillip Telemann, Francesco Geminiani, and Tomaso Albinoni. Apparently I like Baroque classical music.
Saturday 5th NovemberHappy Guy Fawke's Night! Today is my bimonthly knitgroup at Stone Spiral Coffee and Curios in Maplewood AND the St Charles Crooked Tree Coffee House morning write-in. I wrote at knitgroup and more at home, getting into "mess up your character's lives" day.
Sunday 6th NovemberWrote after church in Kaldi's on Carondelet, starting to move the pieces on the board and get into the meat of the story. No bad guy is 100% evil, they're just people with lives and dreams who just want to take a shortcut, or make life a little easier. It's the wrong choice for the wrong reasons, but that makes it fun.
Monday 7th NovemberNo lunchtime writing today, and I get to see the sunrise, courtesy of the end of Daylight Savings Time. I wish we'd either abolish that, or stick on it year-round. Not a great day for word count.
Tuesday 8th NovemberElection day. Spent an hour in line to vote before work. Decided to drop my 2k a day rule and give myself a break. I'm slightly above the NaNoWriMo standard for day eight and I feel like I'm getting into my stride. Writing arguments and phone calls between characters about things I know from experience.
Wednesday 9th NovemberGot into a good scene before work, and another one after work in Starbucks. Made the 1667 word goal for the day before my karate lesson. Things are happening in the story, people are arguing.
Thursday 10th NovemberAnother lunchtime of no writing. Shoved myself over the 16k mark after dinner, heading down the home stretch and utterly distracted by searching for titanium sporks on Amazon, because a character has one. Unleashing the Lindsay Stirling channel on Pandora to get my words for the day.
Friday 11th NovemberDear new character, thank you for turning up! You're solving a huge plot problem I didn't know I had. I'm sorry I'm going to kill you, but your death will really help the story along. Also, you'll get to wield the Travelling Shovel of Death before you go, I hope that makes up for it a little.
Saturday 12th NovemberStarting the day well at Crooked Tree Coffee House in St Charles. I forgot my index cards with the plot on, but in just over 90 minutes I made 1315 words. Going to Mauhaus Cat Café this afternoon, so excited!
Sunday 13th NovemberStarting the day at Kaldi's in Chesterfield for breakfast and a writing session. Deliberately left the power cord behind to force me to write faster and not use the internet. Annoyed that I have to disable the WiFi service to keep it turned off, something kept turning it back on, it's a battery hog as well as a time sink. More writing at Barnes and Noble in Chesterfield, then the official write-in at The Book House in Maplewood. Got over 3k words written today!
Monday 14th NovemberAnd back to work after a super productive writing weekend. I seem to be less able to write without my Vivaldi channel on Pandora. Crossed the 25k mark and running downhill towards my plot crisis!
Tuesday 15th NovemberNo lunchtime writing today, got lunch with a friend at Blues City Deli. They took the Redbird sandwich off the menu, but you can still order it. Very little writing done today, I'm tired and brain-fried.
Wednesday 16th NovemberMoved on to a new piece of the story, something I need for the mid book crisis. Wrote at lunch in the Wheelhouse by work, feeling exhausted. Called to cancel my karate lesson for the day, I hate missing a lesson but I'm so tired today.
Thursday 17th NovemberThree words written before work, a working lunch, and I'm looking at 1700 words to write before dinner. I got 1100 done, and the rest afterwards. Characters are revealing backgrounds and life stories I hadn't planned. Wrote a fight scene, that was fun. Things are coming together for the "Oh crap!" crisis in the middle of the story.
Friday 18th NovemberHad a word war with myself at lunchtime, got 422 words in 10 minutes. I should do that more often! Crossed the 30k line today.
Saturday 19th NovemberGot 777 words done by the end of knitgroup today. Going to the StLNaNo Evening of Scribbling Recklessly at the Rock Road library tonight, 4pm till 10pm. It's my first time being in a library after closing. I left at 8:30pm with over three thousand words written in the library. We got pizza delivered, there were word wars, and Paul overtook my word count. Again.
Sunday 20th NovemberI'm killing off a major character today, and everything is going wrong for my other characters. Another good day of writing between home, Barnes and Noble in Chesterfield, and the Book House write-in. I'm running 2 days ahead of the NaNoWriMo goal word count. Switched to a Lindsey Stirling channel on Pandora and got a good rhythm going.
Monday 21st NovemberOne character is dead, all is falling apart in my story, and the CDC is on their way to set up a quarantine. A whole bunch of characters are about to have a horrible day. Except for the one that died, his day can't get any worse. Driving straight out to Chesterfield to have an early dinner and write a bit before karate group class and sparring.
Tuesday 22nd NovemberEntering the final week-and-a-bit is daunting. I have a LOT of story still to write. Took the day off from writing, lots of stuff going on, including a working lunch and pre-Thanksgiving grocery shopping.
Wednesday 23rd NovemberTaking an hour of vacation time to leave early, get out to Chesterfield and write before my karate lesson at 6pm. The action is heating up, everyone is where I wanted them to be, and the character's lives are going horribly wrong. Hoping to bring in the Travelling Shovel of Death later in the week.
Thursday 24th NovemberHappy Thanksgiving! Writing as the scent of roasting lamb fills the house. Only got 343 words done today, but the lamb, roast potato, mashed swede, and boiled carrots were fantastic.
Friday 25th NovemberHappy 'stay in your PJs and eat leftovers' day! I ventured out and got 25% off at the sale in Knitorious, it was quiet and I was among my tribe. Ate the same dinner as yesterday and it was just as good.
Saturday 26th NovemberSupport your local small businesses today, online and offline. Write-in and breakfast at the Crooked Tree Coffee House in St Charles, the last of the novel-writing season. Details from reading The Hot Zone years ago are coming in handy. Crossed the 44k mark today.
Sunday 27th NovemberFinal write-in at The Book House in Maplewood. Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays have been my most consistently good writing days this year, with Tuesdays my worst day of the week. I'd expected Wednesdays to be bad writing days because I'm at karate 6pm-9pm (lesson, group class, sparring class), maybe knowing that constraint gets me more focussed on making word count for the day. A character woke up long enough to deliver some crucial plot information, I'm grateful, but he's still going to die. He was supposed to be dead several thousand words ago.
Monday 28th NovemberBack to work, and three days to go. This is the first year in a long time that I'll log a word count every day. Planning to validate tomorrow and see how far I can get on Wednesday. Writing at lunch in a phone room called DeLorean. Finished the day's words before karate at Kaldi's in Chesterfield.
Tuesday 29th NovemberNo writing before work or at lunch, but we went to Café Ventana after work to write. My plan was to get to 51k and validate, the NaNoWriMo validator drops my word count by about 200 words. 49k at 5:15pm and heading into the final three chapters of the story! I won NaNoWriMo! Validated with 50022 words, the validator shaved about 200 off my total. Got 1400 words for the day, and a well-earned rest.
Wednesday 30th NovemberThe final day of National Novel Writing Month! I like this story, I'm going to finish the last three chapters using Chuck Wendig's 350 words a day plan (lots of swears at that link). Got the 'you added word count every day' badge on my NaNowriMo profile, possibly the first time I've got that.