I started the week three behind in my word count, but I was on vacation this week. Did I catch up?
Day 15
And we’re off—week three. Work was very busy, and even though I sat in front of a computer all day, I was exhausted when I got home. I ate supper, Watched an episode of What We Do in the Shadows, and promptly fell asleep—by accident. I woke up at midnight.
The word count for day 15: still 19562.
Day 16
It’s Friday, and I was officially on vacation for ten days when I left work today. I’m not going back to work until after Memorial Day. I was invited to get together with some friends for Friday night, but it got postponed until Saturday night, giving me more time to get some words in. But then a major storm came through the area, and I went to my Mom’s condo to wait it out because my house would be blown away like Dorothy’s in The Wizard of Oz. And Mom’s condo building is built like a fortress.
The storms did not affect my part of town, so I didn’t even need to go to my Mom’s. I was going to work on my novel there, but she didn’t know the password for her Wi-Fi, so my laptop was useless at her place. I went home around nine o’clock. I went to bed promptly and slept. I only got about 120 words in today, but hey, I got something done. Day 17 starts the first full day of my ten-day vacation.
Word count for day 16: 19685.
Day 17
Well, I am 8,654 words behind, but I will not despair. I’m on vacation and intend to catch up by Memorial Day. Is it cheating to do this on vacation? Of course not, but it is easier than doing this during a month when I would not be taking a vacation. When I did the NaNoWriMo during November, I usually had Thanksgiving Day and the Friday after off from work. Some years, I would take more days off during Thanksgiving week, which was my way of catching up.
Now that the NaNoWriMo non-profit organization has disbanded, I am doing my own fifty-thousand-word rough draft of a novel in my chosen month. And I happen to be taking a vacation this month. I mean, that’s what this is all about. I’ve already said this, but I’ll repeat: the idea of NaNoWriMo is still valid – the website and the non-profit organization have nothing to do with the essence of National Novel Writing Month. They were just accessories. I’m not going to rip on them here because that has been done to death, and rightly so.
It’s time to move on. Some of the online comments made me realize people think writing a 50K word rough draft can’t be done without the NaNoWriMo organization. But, of course, it can. That’s what I’m trying to prove now. By the way, the NaNoWriMo website is still active as of this writing, but supposedly, it will become inactive at some point, whatever that means. Maybe one day, the program will be resurrected. We’ll have to see what happens.
Word count for day 17: 23789
Day 18
Yesterday, I wrote 4,100 words. I would have done more, but I went to church—I go to church on Saturday early afternoon. After church, I got together with some friends and had an awesome home-cooked meal. Great job, David! Then we played the card game Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. It’s so fun.
I have no social obligations today, so I’m free all day. I want to do at least 6,000 total words today or get to 30K overall – same difference. In his book, No Plot, No Problem, Chris Baty says the person doing NaNoWriMo (or, in my case, a 50K word challenge) should do at least one 6,000 word per day. He also says to get out of the 20,000Ks as soon as possible. He says they’re “literary quicksand.” I think he means getting to 30K words gives the writer some hope of being victorious at the end of the month.
Something I’m going to try after May is a 90-day challenge. In this case, the writer produces 50K words in three months, which is only 555 words a day. Specifically, it’s 555.5 words a day, but I think I can handle point five. This makes a lot more sense for one’s sanity. It makes the writing process much more enjoyable.
When I compiled a list of NaNoWriMo alternatives, I was interested in the 90-day challenge, which is called Novel 90. I haven’t explored the details of this challenge yet, but the splash page says it’s free (I’ll have to find out if it’s actually free). I will probably practice writing (at least) 555 words a day for 90 days, with or without the Novel 90 website.
Word count for the day: 30056.
Day 19
I’m pressing the advantage. I got caught up over the weekend by reaching 30K and writing 6K words in one day. My goal is to keep well ahead and not get behind again. Since I’m on vacation this week, which is really a staycation, I plan to write as much as I can each day. I’d like to say a minimum of 3K every 24 hours. We’ll see.
My current writing method is fleshing out the scenes in a semi-screenplay format. I’m writing a lot of dialogue, pouring on the descriptions of settings and lots of exposition. It’s hardly readable. But it helps me flesh out the scene for when I come back and rewrite it. I will still try to write around 400-500 for each scene to have the whole story by the time I reach 50K. In the past, I spent a few NaNoWriMos writing out a fully narrated scenes. And by the end of the month, I’ve only got a rough draft of half the story.
Some writers may not want to just write a paragraph or two for each scene with a little bit of dialogue. I understand that. I’ve done that, and while it’s enjoyable, it’s not a good strategy for writing 50K in 30 days. Been there, done that. And if that’s what someone wants to do, I fully support it.
I plan to complete a rough draft before the end of the month and spend the last few days writing out several key scenes. According to Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat Writes a Novel, these scenes are the Opening Image, the Catalyst, the break into 2, the Midpoint, the All Is Lost, and the break into 3.
This is just my strategy, and I’m comfortable with it. I’ve done NaNoWriMo so many times over the years and done it in different ways, and I’ve decided this is the best for my purposes in the long run. I would never tell someone they had to write summaries of each scene instead of full-out narrative prose. There is so much joy in writing a whole scene instead of a summary. And if they don’t complete the entire story but get to 50K, then that is as much a success as any other way.
Word count for day 19: 33022.
Day 20
Can you believe it? I’m ahead and by 3,000 words. My goal is to do another 3K by the end of today, which is possible because I’m on vacation and have plenty of time. I’ve been thinking about how I miss the community of writers during NaNoWriMo.
Before the website shut down, November was a time of excitement for a big writing nerd like me. At coffee shops, I used to go to write-ins with other people doing NaNoWriMo. It was the one time of the year when doing a solitary activity, something like writing, was done in communities worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of would-be authors wrote together.
Over the years, technology evolved and writing groups could be done online. Social media platforms allowed (and still do, of course) for people from all walks of life to form a team and encourage each other digitally. Those groups still happen, but I’m sad NaNoWriMo, Camp NaNo, and all that is gone. The website is shut down but still accessible for writing resources. These resources are still great for starting a novel, and I highly recommend them.
Part of what I’m doing with this 50K word project is to show that writing a rough draft of a novel can still be done even without the NaNoWriMo website. I want to prove it to myself. I want to prove it to anyone reading this.
Word count for today: 35041.
Day 21
I only got 2K words yesterday because I ran around from the coffee shop to my Mom’s condo. Today, I will just stay home and concentrate on getting as close to 40K as possible. I have a week and a half, so I’m doing pretty well. But I’d like to get to the end of the story by writing summaries of each scene.
A part of that is worldbuilding. This is exposition about the background of characters, the history of the world I am writing, and the rules of my story. And descriptions of settings and characters. This is easy if a story is fantasy or science fiction. But even if a writer creates a story about the real world, the writer needs to have the background nailed down. This is a great way to build up word count. Go on and on about how a room looks or the clothing a character is wearing.
Of course, this is a rough draft, so it is okay to do it. In rewrites and revisions, this worldbuilding is carefully woven into the narrative so that it does not come across like an encyclopedia entry. This is called info dumping. And doing that in the 50K novel rough draft is fine. That’s what I’m doing with each scene summary. It’s beneficial to the writer during the rough draft because it helps them figure out the story. Author Terry Pratchell said the first draft (or the rough draft) is the writer telling the story to themself.
Word count for day 21: 37043
50K Words in 30 Days:
Friday’s Findings: My 50K Novel Week 1
Friday’s Findings: My 50K Novel Week 2
Friday’s Findings: My 50K Novel Week 4
Photo by CRISTIAN CAMILO ESTRADA
Andrew M. Friday 
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