Hello everyone! It is the halfway point of NaNoWriMo 2014!

Okay,technically that was a couple days ago. I apologize. I had SUCH a crazy weekend, web what with work and hanging out with friends and going to the Mockingjay Part 1 red carpet premiere (which you can read about here), that I just completely flaked on this post.

But I am here now!

So let’s jump in, eh? I’m gonna talk a little bit about how its going for me, and share a little excerpt from the very very rough draft and I hope you can share how well its going for YOU in the comments below!

What was your goal, and how are you doing in your reach for it?

My goal for this NaNoWriMo is 40K. I’m at 33350 as of this exact moment that I’m writing this, so I’m doing pretty good. I had a blast of writing when I first started and I wrote about 7K in one day. I was averaging about 3K a day which is more than you need to do to even reach the standard goal of 50K. But the past four days have been rough, and I haven’t written much at all. I managed to make myself write a little over 2K today to try and make up for that, but its been hard. I’m in chapter nine I think and I think the first 8 chapters were really fully fledged in my mind and now I’m kind of fumbling in the dark, like I usually do and its been kind of rough.

However, I’m hoping I’ll be back on track now and that I can really focus on this. I’m hoping I can get back to writing 3K a day, because that would just be great.

What have been some of your guys’ successes? 

I’ve outlined most of the book, which makes me incredibly happy because at least I have some sort of direction that I know I’m heading in. I’m kind of more of a “pantser” than a “plotter” BUT I do like to have some idea of where I’m going so I sometimes outline the next few chapters to give myself an idea and I definitely have that going on.

I’m really having a lot of success in developing my main character, Evie. I’ve made some changes to her and her surroundings, that have helped make her more real in my mind. She struggles with a lot in the book: shyness, an eating disorder, distrust in people, things like that and I want it all to seem real and genuine and not fake and I think that’s coming along nicely.

I also think that I had great success in the first week. I wrote a lot which hopefully will set me up for the rest of the month. I started off really really strong so I’m hoping that plays into the rest of the month, and honestly, the rest of the novel.

What have been some of the challenges? 

Well, first off, time. I have a job, and the regular blog stuff and friends and sleep and that sort of thing. A lot of why I didn’t get any writing done this weekend was simply because I haven’t had time. I was working and seeing my friends and doing the premiere and yeah, it got set aside. Hopefully I’ll be able to really make that time to finish this novel.

Another challenge is that I’m basically writing two stories in one. I’m writing the story of Evie and Jesse in the year 2011. I’m writing the story of the present (well the future, kind of) of Evie and Austin in the year 2015. Its hard because…well, its like two different stories. I thought I should write one and then write the other but I want them to sort of intertwine and I can’t do that if I write them separately so…difficulties have ensued. A challenge accepted that hopefully will be met.

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Here is an excerpt from my Untitled novel, which might have a title now but I have to think about it. It might be too cheesy…

You may recognize this if you read my post about my writing journey. Sorry that its not brand new! A brand new excerpt will not appear until the end of the month!

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How are you guys doing in NaNoWriMo so far? Share in the comments!