11,684 words and counting!

I am having a blast with my NaNo book! Seriously, things are going SO much better than they were last year. I’m a little behind where I want to be, but only by about four hundred words. (I choose not to write on Sundays, so I have to hit about 2,000 words a day to finish.) I just checked where I got to on my novel last year and the highest I hit was 16,238 words before I gave up and focused on finishing my playwriting class.

I had forgotten how much of a difference it makes to write an idea that’s already pretty well laid out in your mind before you start. I think that was the largest problem with my NaNo for last year (Lorrie’s story) that I only finished a couple of weeks ago. I hadn’t let it simmer enough before I started writing it, so things were changing all over the place. This idea is going really well, though I’m doing something that I’ve never done before. I’m writing it backwards.

You see, I started at the beginning, but the scene that kept popping up in my head and demanding to be written is what I suspect will be the climax. So I finally gave in and wrote that. Now I’ve been writing the scenes around that and slowly working my way back towards the beginning, one chapter at a time. And it’s going much better than starting at the beginning was. Go figure.

In doing all this, I’m also discovering/learning how to budget my time extremely well. I’ve finally found a calendar/to do list system that works really well for me and I’ve never felt more productive. Not that I haven’t fallen off every now and again, but I’ve been hopping right back on the next day. Usually I just give up on the system and try something else. Basically, I have a desk calendar that holds all of my appointments. Then I have a small notebook that I carry around with me that has a two page spread for each day. On the left I write in any appointments for that day and my to do list. The right page is for notes so that everything is in one place. I love it! It’s working incredibly well for me.

Anyway, that’s about it for tonight. Life is just fantastic!