I totally forgot to update my NaNo status… I did it! I won!
I wrote 50,450 words in 29 days (and then about 125 more on the 30th) and then have taken a bit of a break since then. My novel is up to about 70k words now, and I figure I have at least 30-40k left to get the first draft complete. I was ahead of schedule for the first week, but November was one of my most difficult work months I’ve had in years, and I quickly fell behind. With 5-6 days to go, I had 20k words to write. I managed to carve out 4-hour blocks on three consecutive days over the last weekend and I managed to get close. It was interesting; some of the chapters just flowed so easily while others I struggled with. And it wasn’t necessarily because of my interest in the chapter. For one of them at least, it was such an important chapter and I really wanted to get it right.
The other thing I was really surprised by was my characters driving the story. I’ve been working on this novel for 30+ years and I know the big plot arc, but the smaller things built themselves while writing, and sometimes in very mysterious ways. All off a sudden I had a character going off and doing something I didn’t expect. I had a whole scene written in my head and then when I started writing it, it went in a completely different direction (for the better!). I also found two of my four POV characters voices, and for one of them, I found her exploring things that I never thought would happen. very cool.
I also wrote my first love scene… unexpectedly it was two men. If you had asked 7th grade me what the first love scene I was going to write was going to be, it definitely would have been two different characters… but I decided to go in a different direction for those two and the gay love scene is important for the arcs the characters take, so it was a natural scene. Now, the scene itself needs some work. My wife suggested I read some romance. We shall see.
I will continue working on it now that I’ve rested up a bit, but I know that this first draft is really just getting the skeleton down so that I can come back and add the depth that it needs. I did manage to break out from my habit of underwriting. My first 4-6 chapters that I wrote last summer are each about 1000-1500 words long and are very terse. Some of the later chapters I wrote are upwards of 4500. Partially because more is happening but more because I am finding my own voice. This month I also am working to put together a good application for Clarion West, so I’m revising two short stories (not 100% sure which two yet…) for inclusion. Wish me luck!