Started my NaNoWriMo novel this evening.  I went in thinking that this was going to be a breeze, and that I would be able to crank out 50,000 words without any difficulty by the end of the month.

Well, I’ve started decently, I think, especially since I’m playing by the rules and have done absolutely nothing to prepare for the novel.  I’ve had to spend some time this evening plotting out the first chapter, trying to think about where I want things to go, etc.  I’ve also been using Scrivener for the first time ever, and am finding it to be a real joy.

I’ve got some trepidation that I won’t be able to finish by the end of the month, but I’ve still got the early joy of starting a new project to keep me entertained for the time being.

What’s my novel about?

Well, it’s a hardboiled detective novel set in a dystopian future where animals are revealed to be sentient and can communicate with people.  From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to a murder mystery focusing on cows.

So, we’ll see how well I do.  Day one is over, I’ve written 1252 words, and am exhausted.  Let’s see how well the novel writing goes with the full time job, family, and Vlad-writing.  All of Vlad is written through the end of November, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a NaNoWriMo strip shows up sometime in early December.

Goddamn, 50,000 is a lot of words.

Happy writing.

I’ll be honest, I have zero expectation of completing NaNoWriMo. I have a four month old, a full time job, and I average about an hour a night working on Vlad strips (and I haven’t drawn a buffer for the month.) To try and makes things easier on myself I am using the works of Joseph Campbell and the Monomyth as a basic ground plan, and I will be drawing in cameo appearances from my favorite sci-fi pop culture.

My story will be a Firefly-esque romp through the future where magic is possible, as we follow a young wizard and his vampire buddy who are on the run from the law. Odd, yes, but hopefully fun.

I did actually wake up Halloween morning thinking that it was already the 1st and accidentally started writing. So I already broke the basic rules of NaNoWriMo, but I have decided I will just keep going. If I’m even still working on it/interested by the end of the month I will only claim victory if I can hit the 50,000 mark by November 29. As it stands I have 2,895 words written, so I am already 438 words behind schedule.

Estragon and I have both hit the 50k mark on the NaNoWriMo.  I can’t speak to his experience of it, but to mine, it went something like this:

1st week - barely squeaking out 1500 or so per night

2nd week - hitting my goal of around 1700 per night, no problem, with one huge day on Friday where I hit 4000, and got a generous buffer

3rd week - maintained the buffer and was averaging between 2k and 2500 per night.

4th week - cracked 50k late Wednesday night

My novel still has a few chapters to go, and it needs revising, but all in all it was a pretty good experience.  I think next time I’d probably write something that I know more about, rather than a genre piece of a type of fiction that I never read.

Also, I cannot recommend Scrivener enough.  It’s a great program with a ton of useful features.

Back to my food coma.

Finished off my story / 50k on the night before Thanksgiving and it felt pretty awesome.

First Week: Panicking that I would tie the story up way before I reached 50K.
Second Week: Realizing that the outline I had made was worthless and I was just along for the ride as the characters told me what they were doing.
Third Week: Confident I would hit 50K, but never finish the story, as I had gone in and added a whole new sub-plot.
Fourth Week: On Cruise Control and trying to figure out a way to give the story a vague sense of closure, but leaving it open for another 50K worth of words to really round it out.

All in all, this was a great experience and I think I actually made a fun piece of storytelling / genre mashup. My wife really enjoyed it and read it all in a single sitting and is looking forward to the next bit to be written.

Also, I cannot praise Scrivener enough. I don’t think I could have done this without it. I am not organized enough and working out of a single file would have been a nightmare, whereas multiple files just gets confusing for me. If you are on an Apple and write, I highly recommend it.

Printed out my manuscript from NaNoWriMo so that my family could read/edit for me. That’s a lot of paper.