As you may have seen in my earlier post, I am once again participating in NaNoWriMo. This go round I am working completely without plan or outline, and just Pantsing the hell out of it! I promised to give regular updates on how I’m doing, what I’m doing, and the general thoughts, so this is me checking in.
How Am I Doing?
So we are at day 6 of NaNoWriMo and I am feeling pretty proud of myself. I am writing this post at 10pm having just finished two 30 minute sprints and three 10 minute sprints, and now I am calling it a day! I have managed to get in some writing time every day since my last post, and I am currently right on track with 10726 words written! I promised myself that I would write every day this week, and we are halfway there, so I just need to keep it up!
What Am I Doing?
So things are coming along nicely from when I started. Which wasn’t a big stretch, considering “where I started” was with some character names and no plot. But I now have two decent chunks down and have moved my characters, Mason and Amelia, through almost two days of time, in-book. I mean, it jumps around a lot and I have a fair amount of *INSERT PLOT HERE* bits chucked in, but that’s what happens when you are just winging it.
I will say that I have determined the two most crucial pieces of info needed for book characters, and that is what their Hogwarts Houses are. Amelia is a proud Ravenclaw, and Mason is very much a Hufflepuff. The Gryffindor in me is a little sad that neither claimed that house, but I will survive. Slytherin wasn’t even in the running for either, no surprise there. Maybe someday I will write a fun, broody, Slytherin type.
General Thoughts
This book is such a different experience from my last NaNo project. I had such a clear vision for that one, and this time I am going at this completely blind. Making the transition from Plantser to Pantser is way more drastic than I ever would have thought, and I don’t think I like it much. I mean, time will tell and it’s still early, but I am not as attached to this story or these characters, especially considering my deep love of my PL&VW project. This is a whole different creature and it’s definitely a trip for me.
Also, just a weird observation, but during PL&VW I always needed to have “mood music” on in the background. I had a great playlist of relatively mellow instrumental music that I played pretty much on loop (thank you YouTube), and I couldn’t write without it. But for this book, I am finding I need no music at all, and that music is even a little distracting. I do have a space heater on in my office with me (I like to be toasty), and that gives off some ambient noise, but that’s about it beyond the clicking of my keyboard (I LOVE a clicky keyboard). Despite the lack of music, I still have to wear my big puffy headphones or else I feel like the world is too loud. My office is pretty well soundproofed, so this really isn’t necessary, but it’s probably some sort of comfort thing. *shrugs* I won’t question what works.
Well, there we have it! Progress is being made and that’s definitely something. Now to keep this going for another however-many-days-we-have-left!
Are you doing NaNo? How is your experience going so far? Tell me in the comments below!
Megabunny Reads 