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Jennifer's working toward 30K words...
This month, I’m participating in JeRoWriMo (or, as my
husband likes to call it, Ramalamadingdong), which is my local romance writer
chapter’s take on NaNoWriMo. For the month of February, we have the goal of
writing 30K words. It comes down to 1072 words per day.
I’ve participated in this challenge before and found it
useful for the discipline. I knew that every day I had to prioritize my writing
over almost everything else. My kids and husband pitched in so that no matter
what, I could write.
This time around, I’m finding it’s not the discipline that’s
sticking with me, but the looming deadline. I HAVE to write at least 1072
words, or I’ll have more to write the following day to make up for it. For some
reason, I’m not enjoying it as much.
I love writing. And I love being a writer. But I’m not sure
I’m liking what I’m writing. Maybe it’s the story. Maybe it’s the lack of
planning I put into this story. I’m not quite sure who my characters are or
where they’re headed, other than to a “happily ever after.”
This challenge is helping me write Book 3 of my Women of
Valor series. I still don’t have a title, and so far, I think this book is
turning out to be a New Adult romance, as my characters seem young. So maybe
that’s why I’m not liking it as much.
I’m not sure much is happening plot-wise and I keep leaving
myself notes of things that need to be filled in when I go back and edit. See,
we’re not supposed to edit during the challenge. Now, I don’t usually edit as I
write, but if I find a problem, I do go back and fix it. I’m not doing that
now, so maybe that’s my problem.
My heroine was going to be a museum curator. Except, I don’t
know anything about museum curators and all my research indicated that what I
wanted her to do, and what she’d actually do as a curator, was so different
that I ended up choosing a different profession for her.
Some days the writing comes really easily and others it’s
more difficult. I’m determined to see this through to the end and I need to get
this book written, so 30K words are very helpful. I’m just not sure they’re the
right words. But maybe I’ll surprise my self when I reach the goal and start
rereading what I wrote.
Good luck, Jennifer, with your goals. I'm not sure I could put myself under so much pressure. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you reach them.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least it's only 1000 words.
DeleteI did NaNoWriMo about 3 years ago, and although I reached the target, I didn't particularly enjoy the experience! I felt as though I was writing words simply to reach the target and, although I spent several months tidying up and editing the story afterwards, it has still remained my least favourite of all my stories.
ReplyDeleteWe'll have to see how I like it by the end. Not sure this is agreeing with my Type A personality.
DeleteThink I'm an A minus/B plus type of personality LOL!
DeleteTraining your family for your writing career is great, Jen!
ReplyDeleteCould you have sketched out a story line before the start date?
I most definitely cannot do outlines, Ana. I probably should have, however, made some character sketches.
DeleteI can't do outlines either. I have sorted out a basic scenario/background for my next novel, so I know vaguely where I am going with it, but haven't got an outline of what will happen when. I think my characters will decide that!
DeleteI would have a hard time meeting a set word goal for each day. When I did my attempt - I didn't even call it a goal - to write my Corral Christmas story, I didn't set a number of pages I wanted to do each day, but rather just made sure I sat down and wrote.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I accomplished my attempt, most days I came away with about 500 to 600 words per day. Way short of what you're attempting. You've got more guts than me! :)
I didn't work from an outline either, but I found it was fun to see where my characters took me each day.
Good luck with your goal. No matter what, you will have accomplished a lot. And who knows, maybe the story that comes out will be even better than the one you envisioned.
Thanks, Debra. I figure regardless of what happens, I've written a lot toward the end goal.
Delete