NaNoWriMo 2022: Week One Update

Hello! It is that time of year again! NaNoWriMo has begun!

For those of you who are not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month and it is a challenge that writers take part in to try and write a novel in the month of November. The average length of a novel is 50,000 words. So, the goal in November is to write 50,000 words which evens out to 1,667 words a day.

It is hard!

2022 is the third year that I have taken part in the challenge. The first year, I wrote 34,615. It was a great accomplishment for me. At the time, I had not written anything for years and I used the challenge to get back into things. You can check out how I got on week by week in 2020 here: Week One, Week Two, Week Three; and then my final thoughts that year here: Final Week.

2021 went a little differently. I was not well for the last few months of 2021, and I was debating for a while whether to actually take part in the challenge or not (Am I Doing NaNoWriMo?). In the end, I decided to take part! However, I got through Week One, and I just tailed out. I lost motivation and I could not get myself to write anymore.

Which then brings me to 2022. I knew from January when I was discussing my 2022 Writing Goals that I wanted to take part this year. However, at the beginning of the year, I thought I would have a better writing year. So, in September, I started thinking about NaNoWriMo. I went back and forth whether I was going to stick true to NaNoWriMo and completely write a story from scratch, or whether I was going to reattempt what I tried last year and to rewrite an existing project. Eventually, I settled on a new project, and decided I would use October to prep!

And… it did not work out that way.

I have always been a pantser who has envied planners. I honestly could not think of an idea enough to start developing it. So, I left it and I left it and then suddenly it was Halloween, the day before the 1st November and the start of the challenge, and I had absolutely no idea what I was going to work on. I had prepped of some sort though, and had booked the first three days off of work, so I could truly focus and get ahead. So, when I woke up on 1st November and opened up my blank document, I froze for a moment and could not remember a single letter of the alphabet, let alone write a word or form a sentence. How on earth was I going to write a book this month?

Then, I made myself a cup of tea, and maybe it is because I am English or maybe tea truly is magical in some kind of way, because then the words flowed. And flowed. And flowed.

Day One: 2,165

Day Two: 4,635

Day Three: 3,308

Day Four: 770

Day Five: 0

As you can see, I made use of my three days holiday! In the first three days, I wrote 10,108 words. I was so proud of it and a little in shock when I realised that I had somehow thought of an idea, when just hours before I had no idea what to do. I am someone who figures out what I am writing as I am writing. I like to learn about the characters as I am writing them and really let them and circumstances guide the story. Obviously, it does mean I will have lots to fix in the second, third and fourth drafts, but by then I know exactly what I am doing!

Day two was my best day of the week and something clicked for me that day and I could not stop writing. Day five, was obviously my worst day. Part of the reason I wanted to get as far as I could into the challenge whilst I was off is because I knew that I was going to have a couple of 0 word days. On the 5th, I went to York for a day trip with my friend. I was gone from 6am in the morning until 11:30pm at night. There was no time or room for writing. I am okay with that, as long as I can make up for it on other days.

However, day four for me was the most disappointing. I wrote 770 words which was less than half of the goal for the day. It was my first day back at work, and the screens and the lights gave me a huge headache. So then when I came home and tried to sit in front of the screen again, it became quite painful. This is something I am going to need to figure out how I am going to balance. My graphs are not going to look like a satisfying straight line. There are going to be dips and rises.

In total, my final word count for week one is: 10,878 words!!

Overall, I am so happy with my progress this week and this month so far! I cannot wait to continue writing on this brand new idea. It has been a year and a half since I have started a new project and part of me had forgotten the thrill of it all!

My predictions for this week are that on the 6th and the 12th will be my highest word count days as those are the week days! I also think that the 10th will also be a higher word count day as I only have a half day of work that day. I am really excited to get back to work on this and inevitably explore more of the characters and the story!

Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo? Let’s be buddies – Kira Jeanette

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