We are 11 days into November. I’ve written words on my work-in-progress for 10 of those days (haven’t logged any yet for today, but it’s only 8:30 AM my time).
How am I doing so far?
Let’s check.
Kingdom of Fraun Short Stories
- When I started NaNo this year there were 3 short stories in this collection totalling 38,973 words.
- My goal was to add the rest of the stories I wanted to include, maybe read through the ones that were there, and get a basic idea of word count.
- I have finished the other 3 stories that I wanted to include.
- In their current (draft) state I am now looking at 48,596 words for the entire collection. This is pretty good! I’m happy with this word count.
- I have read through 2 of the 3 that were done before NaNo started (the shorter 2). They’re both better than I remember. I made tiny edits but nothing major.
- Soon (ahem: after November) I will have to read through all of them, make edits, and then think about bringing them to people. I know you’re all excited, I am too!
Obviously, starting with a half finished draft of short stories would never get me to the 50,000 words needed to WIN at NaNo. So, I went into NaNo with a second project in mind. I planned to pop back to that one when I ran dry on words to add to the Fraun short stories.
SlasherWIP
- This was my Camp NaNo project in July and I failed that EPICALLY.
- This draft had 41,852 words when I started. I’ve literally been working on this bad boy since July and that’s all I had. That’s … sort of sad. Anyway, NOT THE POINT. The point was to keep writing, following the outline, and try to finish!
- As of yesterday this draft has 48,922 words. Not bad considering I only switched to this WIP on the 7th.
- More importantly, I feel like I got unstuck on this one. The words are coming out again and it’s not a battle to follow the outline (yet).
Of course, it’s still early days. These numbers (the grand total so far for both projects is sitting at 17,407 words) are good but they’re not enough for the month. Anything can change at any time. I’m trying to be honest with myself about what’s coming and prepare myself for the fact that it could be a rough end of the month. Regardless of what happens, November is currently my 3rd best month for words written after January (31,141) and July (31,266) which only proves it’s been a ROUGH year. Third place after ten days? Wow.
So, wherever you are in the NaNo word count … It’s still early. Take it one day at a time and hang in there. It’s not over yet.
See you in the trenches!