NaNo Week 1

November 7 goal (1,667/day): 11,669
Current word count: 14,353
Favorite writing song from this week: "You Are Free" by Jimmy Eat World

The hardest thing from this week: I struggled a lot with getting into my first-person narrator. It's been three years since I wrote in first person and the transition was more difficult than I though it would be. There's a lot of freedom in a third person narrator but there's also a lot of things you give up when you let go of such a close relationship with a main character. At the same time, it's difficult to go back to limiting your descriptions to what a person would believably notice or think about.

The easiest thing from this week: There were two days (Thursday and Friday) where the writing came easily and felt right. I should also lump in one of the major scenes because it turned out  much better than I expected for a first draft try.

Goals for this next week: Stay on top of all my homework- I have a test on Friday that will need to be studied for. Plus I have the never-ending research stream to tackle but in less than two weeks I'll be headed home for Thanksgiving, so that's giving me the strength to keep going.

Lessons learned this week: Chocolate is a really great motivated for when I don't want to write anymore but I really want the chocolate. WinCo bulk, you are my savior.

Random closing thoughts: I'm ahead on my word count but I'm going to try not to use my 'skip day' for as long as possible. I'm most likely to need it next week because I have another test but I have two research-related assignments due as well. But, depending on the outcome of the election tomorrow, I might end up consuming large amounts of wine and then I'll need a skip day.

I just realized I've written more than 14,000 words in the past week. That's more than most people write in a year, let alone a week, and I'm suddenly really, really proud of myself.

Go me!