NaNoWriMo Week 2: Ashley Newell

How has it been a week already?

Word count for week two: 30,022

Words today: 0 (if I make 100 words today, I’ll be happy)

The Writing Process: I feel like I’ve written nothing this week. Saturday I woke to discover that the people at NaNoWriMo declared Double Up Day; never heard of such a thing before. I don’t know if it’s a new thing or if I’ve just never paid attention before, but the idea is that you double your efforts on this one day. I didn’t make the 6,000 that I aimed for (double of my 3,000 word goal), but I didn’t do too bad with 5,550! 

Every day since has been a struggle. It’s not Double Up Day’s fault, it’s just what happens when I write after a long day and my brain is fried. My on-going victory is that I have yet to go to bed without putting down a single new word! My low point so far is a pathetic 250 words, but it’s still better than nothing!

The Story So Far: I can’t remember what I covered during Double Up Day, but it was probably a lot – yes, I’m brain-dead right now, too. Mostly, though, I’ve been re-writing the same series of events. Trying to get Detective Hatfield into the world beyond the looking glass has been tougher than I thought. Not that he hasn’t had opportunities, it’s just that I’d write it out and feel like the life was drained from it. If I’ve been carrying anything over from week one, it’s flipping perspectives. Having a different character in control of a scene changes it in so many ways. I think I’ve drugged Hatfield at least five different times now, but I’m finally happy with the way it played out on… Wednesday I think it was… yes, Wednesday is when I saved that scene – well, I guess the credit goes to the Knave. His name is Kneville, he’s a very cranky princely fellow who will eventually go on a mass murdering spree. I’d announce “spoilers” in true River Song fashion, but when I said that Wonderland is going to be dark, I really meant it. I listed all of the immoral atrocities that take place in this story to a friend of mine; her reaction was to ask if I was going to include anything that the UN wouldn’t frown upon… Well, it has some snarky wit, so that has to make up for something.

For Week Three: Just keep swimming. If I can get back into a minimum of 1,667 words a day, I’ll be thrilled, but I don’t see my up-coming week slowing down any so writing might suffer. Again, I’m so glad that I got that word count cushion up in week one, because despite my off-days, I’m still ahead of schedule! Ideally, I’ll get another 15,000 words for next week. We’ll just have to see how well that works out!

If you’d like to find out more about my progress, I have been trying to do daily posts on my personal blog: http://newellbooks.weebly.com/blog and my stats can be followed on my NaNoWriMo participation page as well as Twitter @olanthea.

Happy Writing!