As an alternate to NaNoWriMo, I’m doing a 50K word rough draft of a novel in 30 days. Here’s how the second week went:

Day 8:

My city has the best coffee shops. I’m sitting in one before I go to work and I’m going to outline some unfinished scenes. I swore I wouldn’t do that but it’s really bugging me. On the plus side, outlining them helps me think through the story. It builds my word count. And when I go back to rewrite, I won’t be confused.

My goal is to get caught up over the next few days. I’m woefully behind, but it’s okay. The weekend is coming up and I’m thinking about doing one of those six-thousand-word days Chris Baty talks about in his book No Plot, No Problem in chapter 7. My story is fun, and I’m still in the Set Up period of my story. According to Save the Cat story structure, this is the part in which the reader is getting to know the characters. I’m about to activate the Catalyst in which the story makes a big turn and goes into a different direction. Final word count for day 8 is 8883.

Day 9

I make a lot of progress today. I went back and filled in the missing parts of scenes I did not finish. Some exposition. Some outlining. Final count for day 9: 11041.

Day 10

I’m layering in fictional elements when I am thinking of a way to start a scene. Here’s how I do it:

• Start with dialogue.
• Add some action.
• Add a setting description at the beginning.
• Sprinkle in the sensory details.
• Add some body language and facial details.
• Add some inner dialogue.
• Add some internal sensations.
• Add some backstory if necessary.
• Rinse and repeat.

This is just one way to develop a rough draft of a scene. Final count for day 10: exactly 13500.

Day 11

One thing I’m missing this month is reading. I haven’t read a book or even listened to an audiobook since the middle of April. It was about that time I decided to write this 50K novel in thirty days, so I started creating characters and making a scene list. So, it’s already been going on a month. I was in the middle of listening to Eruption by James Patterson and Michael Crichton. Usually, I listen to audiobooks at work when I’m working on tasks that allow for that. But lately, work has been so crazy, I haven’t even been able to do that. I think I’ll be able to get back into listening to an audiobook this week and get my “reading” fix in. Meanwhile, the word count for day 11 is 16007.

Day 12

I made a lot of progress today, but I’m still a little behind. I start vacation on Friday, so I’m hoping to take advantage of it and make some real progress. I’m trying to make a big change in the story to enter the BREAK INTO TWO part of the Save the Cat Writes a Novel. My story is an adult Harry Potter type story, a magical academy. It’s set in a fantasy world where the country the school is located lost a war a few years earlier. The politics of the city the school is located puts a lot of stress on it, so guess what? The school breaks into two schools. Yes, the school breaking into two different schools is the BREAK INTO TWO. Just a coincidence. The word count for day 12 is 18798.

Day 13

I’ve written every day since the beginning of May. My understanding is that it’s a good idea to write every day, even if I don’t reach my word count goal. I’m seeing the benefits of that advice. Even though I’m a little behind, I’m not depressingly behind in my numbers. As a result, I feel confident I’ll reach 50K by the end of the month. The word count for day 13 is 19139.

Day 14

Well, tomorrow is the half-way point and I need to be at 25,000. I’m almost in the 20Ks so I’m almost there, but I keep falling a little behind. Vacation starts tomorrow, so I’m confident I’ll catch up. Getting my characters out of their comfort zone helps keep the story moving, so I’m doing that. I have two main protagonists and each of them have had to make major decisions the past few days. Definitely creates conflict. Most days I write at coffee shops or on my pc on the kitchen table. This sounds weird, but today, for the first time since I started this, I wrote in my home office on my magnificent iMac. I’m wondering why I haven’t done this more. I can look out into my backyard while I write with the trees in the background. And my home office is a great writing spot and that gigantic Macintosh screen makes composing my story more epic. The word count for day 14 is 19562.

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50K in 30 Days Diary:

Friday’s Findings: My 50K Novel Week 1

Friday’s Findings: My 50K Novel Week 3

Friday’s Findings: My 50K Novel Week 4

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