Happy Writing everyone! How is everyone doing with NaNoWriMo? I hope you’re sticking it out. We’re past the halfway point and I’m sure its getting tough and there are days where you want to give up. Well I’m here to tell you that you should definitely NOT give up!

This is being posted on Monday, look but I’m writing this on Thursday since I’ll be busy Friday-Monday with the Catching Fire fan camp and red carpet premiere. I’m hoping I’ll have lots of writing done this weekend, despite all the distractions!

But we’re at the halfway point! Well, a little more than the halfway point. 

So I’m just kind of checking in to see how you’re all doing! I hope you’re doing great, and that things are going great!

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

My goal was to hit 20K. I realized quickly that I had already written 15K and I moved it up to 35K. I guess I didn’t realize how much I had latched onto my novel, because I’m up to (as I’m writing this) just over 40K. I actually think I might be able to reach 50K by the end of the month. I’m really proud of myself.

I’ve been mostly focusing on the entirety of the novel as a whole and less on just reaching that 50K. I really am feeling this one. I really feel like it could be (and this is going to sound SO cheesy) the ONE. The one that wins over an agent and a publisher and ends up in a beautiful book. I’ve made a lot of progress so far.

Update: its Sunday, and I hit 51K on Friday. I am so proud of myself. I haven’t written anything this weekend because of Catching Fire fan camp, but I have a lot of faith that I’ll be writing a lot during the rest of the month. I am so excited to share it all with you.

What have been some of your guys’ successes? 

I’ve been doing really good. I think my strongest successes so far has been in my characters. I think that I’m really developing them and it feels great. I also think that I’m building the relationships between my characters really well. I think that’s why I’m writing so much, because I’m loving my characters and the relationships that I am creating between them.

What have been some of the challenges? 

My biggest challenge so far has been time. I have a boyfriend, a family, a blog, school and a job that keeps me busy and its hard to do all of those things and find time to write. I’ve also fallen a little bit behind in reading too.

Another one of my challenges is consistency. The book bible that I created has helped incredibly BUT I still have issues with it, and I’m still working on it. I also have struggled with the slower scenes. I just want to write scenes with action, or kissing, and of course, there has to be a lot of in between too. So that’s something that I’m going to need to work on.

I also find this to be a challenge: I was working on the plot for The Reawakened and it hit me. This is not the standalone novel that I thought it would be. It is going to be a two-parter. So now that I’m writing, I need to think of the next book as well. I already have a title for that, and a tentative storyline for it, but it definitely adds a challenge to The Reawakened, a responsibility to keep things consistent, and to end this book with a desire to read the second book.

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How are you guys doing? Share in the comments and good luck with the second half of the month!