Traditionally, I avoid reading fiction during October and November, because when my brain is lost for words, it’s easy to end with a slight (or more obvious) copy of aspects if they are too familiar, too recently read.
However, this year’s NaNo is not me working on a story I want to edit and publish, to share, but more an exploration of the craft for me after a year of not really writing much.
Reading Fiction
On Thursday, I wandered into a local library and began reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. I had got to page 51 before I realised I was even reading, and when I went home, read another 15 pages on the kindle preview. I’ve previously struggled with getting into a book, and as a writer of young adult or new adult fiction, find that it never hurts to ignite that fire with a teen trilogy. By Friday I had bought the first ebook and found myself sneaking chapters in between the other things I had to do.
NaNoWriMo
As for my wordcount, I’m a little behind, but not so much I’m worried.
As of 23/11, where the wordcount aim is 38,333, I ended the day with 34,234. In the scheme of 50,000 words, a couple of thousand is not that big of a deal.
But this is my final weekend to ‘catch-up’ since I’m at my day-job all of next week. So my aim for today is 5767 words to “hit par.” I’ll be happy with 3.5k, but we’ll see how things go.
I spent much of Thursday planning the next plot points, so writing should move a little smoother from now.
And on top of that, I’m 33% done with Divergent, so there’s progress in something!
How are your November goals shaping up?