NaNo 2016 - Weeks 3 and 4

NaNo 2016 - Weeks 3 and 4

And it's over!  NaNoWriMo has ended.  Congrats to everyone who made it to 50k words and good show on everyone who didn't but still wrote.

Total words written by the end of November 21: 44 812, or a little over 2100 words per day. 
Total words written by the end of November 28: 56 182, or a little over 2000 words per day. 
Total words written by end of November: 56 536, or just under 1900 order per day.

In the third week, other than a couple of off days, I managed to maintain a good pace.  The story flowed as I wrote.  In the fourth, my energy started to flag near the end of the week.  The last two days, I put in some work but didn't push, with the last day getting all of twenty words written.  Adding to the fun, at the 45 000 mark, the second arc started wrapping up at a point where it made sense.  There was no way I was going to be able to stretch the arc another two or three chapters, not when I was about to reveal who the monster really was.  On the plus side, since dba LTV Paranormalists was meant to be a serial, much like Unruly, starting a new arc wasn't a problem.

Or shouldn't have been a problem.  It took an evening to figure out what the core plot was for the second arc, so word by agonizing word, it formed.  I had to figure out how to frame the opening scenes, resulting in showing the problem instead of having the new client just say what happened.  No idea of how well it worked out.

The cast grew again.  Each of the leads' family got expanded upon.  Whether this will pay off is too soon to tell.  Again, no plan when I started the arc.  I think I know what I want to do with Kristi's sister, Fred*.  It's now a matter of bringing the different elements together.  Having Fred around does give me room to up the stakes and cause Kristi some conflict.

The future of dba LTV Paranormalists is now in the air.  I have time to figure out what is happening in the third arc.  I have time to edit the first arc into something coherent.  At the same time, I have other writing to catch up on, including the commentary for The Soul Blade and prep work for Lost in Translation.

What I did learn this time out is that I can maintain a good pace.  If I push too hard, as I did over one weekend, I will need a day at a reduced rate to recover.  This is a far cry from my first time out in 2006 where just making the minimum 1667 words was a stretch.  I can now accidentally write 1500 words without effort in the course of an evening.  Writing isn't a chore, though sometimes figuring out what to write still is.

Now, the planning for NaNo 2017 begins, though I may work on some ideas before, just to get them out.


* A shout out to The Arrogant Worms and their song, "Mounted Animal Nature Trail", especially the live versions.  Like Kristi, Fred is from Northern Ontario.