NaNoWriMo 2014

What have I let myself in for? I knew NaNoWriMo was coming but I didn't have and ideas and besides I already have a novel to edit and other work in various stages. I had no intention of taking part. And then one night when I was laying awake and couldn't get back to sleep my mind started what I call 'head writing'. I had characters, I had a flimsy story and I couldn't stop the scenes playing out. Next morning I sat down and drafted some character profiles, all the stuff that had been in my head plus other stuff.

I was already a day late but I thought...maybe I should write this. So I looked on the website and decided to sign up. It took ages (eating into my writing time). My username was not available - that happened many times. Then it didn't like my passwords. I nearly gave up but then suddenly I was in.

Now my story. Well, I'm working in the dark a bit here because for some reason I have chosen the genre of crime/mystery/suspense. What do I know of crime, the insider workings of the Police force and all its departments?  Absolutely nothing! Still, it's only a draft and I guess I can work a lot of that out later? To complicate things - why go for easy when you can make it hard on yourself - I have multiple characters!

Have I worked out the plot? Er, not entirely. Have I worked out the baddies/who dun it? Er, no. Do I actually have a clue where the story is going? Er......no! Why am I doing it? I really don't know except that I like challenges. The big question is will I manage the 50,000 words I need to write to complete it by the end of the month. Your guess is as good as mine.

Starting a day late I was already lagging behind but I almost caught up by writing nearly double the word count yesterday. Today I achieved 1724 words, which added to yesterday's total makes 4.500 words so far. I'm almost on target.

My worries: I like to think through next scenes in advance then write them. Not sure how much time I will have for that and whether I can keep this up every day for a month. I am kind of writing as I go - basically making it up as I go along, thinking on my feet. The pace is quite something and I'm worried that after a week I won't be able to do it. My first novel was written over six months with periods of intense writing and some slow times when I wrote only 400-700 words at a sitting. I have to write around 1,600 words per day to keep on target. I feel myself wilting already. Today was a struggle, yesterday was a struggle. I don't expect tomorrow will be any better. What I need is more insight to my story. I did a little planning before I started this morning. Maybe I will try a bit more of that later today in the hope that it will help with tomorrows writing.

Has anyone else taken part in NaNoWriMo? If so, how did you find it?

One thing I must try to avoid is social media and answering my emails - that takes up so much time! This morning in the middle of writing a friend phoned wanting someone's address. I spend ages looking through Outlook, papers, ringing other people and still not getting the address I wanted. I shall have to be more disciplined!

I shall let you know how the writing is going. If all else fails I still have my blog and a my other writing to sort out. (I did wonder whether I was doing this as a diversion tactic to avoid the editing process of my novel - what do you think?)