ROW80: NaNoWriMo, Day 18

My lack of planning is making my NaNoWriMo book a challenge. As a recap, I set my daily writing goals a little differently than the standard 1,667 words/day – instead, I write 1,500 words four weeknights, and 3,000 words on both Saturday and Sunday to meet my overall goal. But I didn’t get my 3k in yesterday until 10:30 PM – and I didn’t do much of anything else all day.

I have to outline, and I did outline this book, too. However, many of my scenes were just a few words of what would happen. And I’m finding that that’s not always enough. I need to know what’s the conflict, and who or  what the antagonist is in any given scene, and many of my notes did not have this. I also got hung up on details, and spent a lot of time thinking how something specific would happen, which is something we need to ditch in order to meet the high word count goals of NaNoWriMo. I did manage to get it together just in time, so my progress is still on track, although I did not get as much done on  my revisions for Hangar 18 as I’d have liked, and I had some other things to do yesterday that now will have to be done today. Things like laundry, keeping in touch with family and friends, and some graphic design work I’m doing for my brother, who’s in the process of starting a business. Good thing I have my blogs mostly set up! Oh, and I’m hosting Thanksgiving for my family. I’m taking the day before and the day after off of work – I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get some extra time in there, and keep my wordcount on track.

Here’s my progress for this past week:

  • 12,000 words on NaNoWriMo novel, to a total of 30,000 words or more – Done!
  • Physical activity 5x this week – partial – Done!
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 10-11 – Partial – I got Chapter 10 marked up.

Here are my overall goals for this round:

  • Format and release OVRWA holiday story anthology – Done and now available!
  • Revise Hangar 18 – revisions/markup done through Chapter 10
  • Keep up with my exercise, five times a week – ongoing
  • Win NaNoWriMo – on track with 31,178 words so far!
For this week, I’d like to:
  • 12,000 more words on NaNoWriMo novel, bringing its total up to 43,000
  • Physical activity 5x this week
  • Hangar 18 – review and markup Chapters 11 & 12

If you’re participating in ROW80, how are you doing so far? If you’re in the U.S., what are your plans for Thanksgiving, and do they affect your goal setting this week, especially if you’re doing NaNoWriMo?

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.