NaNo Week #2 // I REACHED 50,000 WORDS(!!!) AND DIDN'T DIE

WELCOME TO WEEK TWO OF NANO!

I hope you all are surviving. Three more days until we're halfway done with the month. THREE MORE DAYS UNTIL THE TORTURE ENDS.

(I'm kidding -- I actually really love NaNo and live for the insanity and chaos it causes. But I am looking forward to having more time for this foriegn concept called "sleep" and "going to bed on time.")

Before I babble on, here's been the week so far.

DAY FIVE: 5,001

(picture by the lovely Nadine)

Today was the day I had to leave Nadine's, which means all the sadness and flying back to my home state. (Running on less than five hours of sleep doesn't help the nerves of flying alone, I've found :P)

But before I left, we had some writing time in the morning which we treasured while drinking chai. Mmm. The whole week I had been trying to get 500 words in a 10 minute word war, and that morning, the last war we did before we left for the airport, I wrote 674 words in 10 minutes.

I'm not sure what happened. I'm convinced that I hired a clone or time paused for a minute, because I've never been able to write that many words before. I'm confused, but I'll take it. xD

DAY SIX: 5,015

Honestly, I was going into this day expecting to come out with a word count of a big, fat 0.

Apparently that did not happen.

Though I had Church in the morning and worked over seven hours in the afternoon/evening, I wrote literally every spare moment I could find. Which probably wasn't the smartest, since I never got a brain break and who knows if those words are going to be coherent. Oh well. It's NaNo. 

Basically this day was to prove to myself that I can write the words despite the busyiness, I just have to stay focused, off social media, and not sleep. Heh.

DAY SEVEN: 5,015

(for some reason I find it very humorous that I wrote 5,015 words two days in a row without even trying. I love unexpected little happy things like that)

A VERY EXCITING THING HAPPENED TODAY. I WROTE MY FIRST PLOT TWIST. Whenever I read a plot twist in a book, I immediately get all giddy at the thought of someday writing one of my own. I'm already pumped to imagine how readers will react, and I hope my words will convey the epicness and astonishment in my head. :P

But, gah. Writing plot twists is the best thing. I 100% recommend.

On a random note, if you need motivation to write... try doing some word crawls. Here are some I've been working through by myself or with other writer friends: Harry Potter word crawl, 18 level dungeon, Hunger Games word crawl.

If none of them raise your interest, here is a whole list of them that you can scroll through.

DAY EIGHT: 5,528

I attribute my writing success today to the election, because it caused me to hide in my room earlier than I normally would, which turned into all the words. Mwahaha.

Hannah(do yourself a favor and follow this lovely human's blog) and I spent the night warring, which turned into this conversation:

Me: We're KILLING these word counts tonight. 

Me: also.

Me: speaking of killing...

Hannah: katie no.

Me: ...something is about to go down.

Hannah: we've talked about this. no murdering people.

And then cue me dying laughing at midnight because that sounds so wrong out of context. #writerslife

DAY NINE: 1,959

From the start, today was not meant to be a writing day. I had every intention of keeping up my 5,000 word streak despite having school, work, and youth group on the schedule. But once I came home around nine, I only had the energy to pound out a little less than 2k before flopping into bed.

And that's okay.

Not everyday has to end in a high word count. Life happens, and sometimes it's better not to push your body that hard. I could've kept writing and hit that 5k, but that also would've resulted in me being overwhelmed and tired and generally not feeling ready to conquer writing or anything else the next day. Sleep is important. Just a little reminder since we all have crazy lives and crazy goals.

DAY TEN: 7,041

TODAY WAS A BLUR OF WRITING. I hit 50,000 words on day ten with a minute to spare, and now I am the most exhausted human. I've never written 50k this fast, and IT'S SO EXHILARATING. And now I need to catch up on sleep.

Or write the rest of my novel. Because it's not actually done yet. *sobs* Ah, the struggles of writing fantasy novels -- 50,000 words may only be half a novel. (I'm hoping that it's not. Crossing my fingers hoping that I only have to write 20-40k more. "only.")

DAY ELEVEN: 1,005

Another day where I intended to write, but life once again happened. School and work happened in the beginning of the day, not exactly thrilling, but A VERY FUN SURPRISE HAPPENED IN THE EVENING.

My family went to see the movie Arrival.

Dude. I'm not sure why this movie hasn't been advertised very much, because Arrival is everything I love in a movie. It reminds me a lot of the movie Interstellar (aka my favorite movie to ever exist), and my mind won't stop spinning from the epicness. It's... it's just amazing. It's suspenseful, with aliens and twisty plot twists and just WATCH THE THING. 

(or click on the picture below to watch the trailer in the meantime. asjdklf;a I HAVE SO MUCH LOVE FOR THIS MOVIE AH)

WRAP-UP

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 51,075

MUSIC:

GENERAL THOUGHTS?

Generally, NaNo is going well. I'm tired. I've been guzzling lots of caffeine and listening to music non-stop. But NaNo is one of my favorite months just because of the insanity, and the amazing community. 

You are all awesome, no matter your word count. Keep plugging away -- you have over half the month left to write! I BELIEVE IN YOU. <3 

// katie grace

How is NaNo going?

Killed any characters yet? :P