NaNoWriMo Prep and the 1st Few Days

NaNoWriMo Prep and the 1st Few Days

If you haven’t realized from my social media posts and the last few blogs I am taking part in NaNoWriMo. I am working on my first Urban Fantasy Noir Mystery novel. This book will be the first in a 13 book series.

Obsidian Vendetta

Avril Florez is a Half-Fairy mortal detective working for the USA’s government body that polices the magical “Other” world, called PIR (Paranormal Investigation and Registration). She has to solve a case, keep an innocent vampire from being framed for a murder, take on an underground black market ring that deals in major favors under the PIR’s noses. She has to survive all this with no powers and a new human “Normal” partner.

How did I prep for this and what am I using to make my life easier.

First of all, I am a planner. I worked on the outline for the story in October and other than moving a few scenes and taking one out I have stayed on target.

I used Google Docs exclusively on my first two novels. This time I decided to try something new. I picked up WaveMaker It’s free and it works syncs to Google docs for backup. I am also backing up my work in Google Docs for double security.

Pinned to my browser bar

YouTube so I can listen to my book soundtrack inspiration

The NaNoWriMo Official site

Google Docs

Pacemaker Planner

Twitter for writing sprints

Wordcounter for seeing how many pages I have written at the end of the day

Two Google sheets one made by a fellow NaNoWriMo author to keep track of writing sprint word count. The other is a Word count sheet I made to keep track of my progress and percentage of the book that is written.

Last is a Character Appearance Generator for describing third level characters that my Main Character interacts with.

The Google Doc of my outline to look at while I write

On my desk at all times.

My E. A. Poe fun pop like figure

A nice smelling candle that I light when I start writing

My daily bullet journal

Notepad to keep track of off the cuff notes

Pins

My phone with a focus app called Focus Plant. Each time I complete a time focus session I get raindrops that I can use to water plants I have planted on islands I have unlocked. This has been a delight and helpful for writing sprints.

How is it going so far?

On November 1st I took part in midnight writing sprint that lasted to 1 am = 1026

After two more writing sprints that day I ended the day with 3,260 words. The daily goal suggested by NaNoWriMo is 1,667 a day. I was aiming for 2,000 a day. Needless to say, I went to bed that night sitting pretty.

November 2nd I did three writing sprints and ended the day at 3,046 words for the day. That put me at a combined 6,306 meaning I hit my first milestone 5k words.

November 3rd I rewarded myself for reaching 5k words and did an at-home facial. Three writing sprints that day gave me 3,986 words. This word count was over double what was suggested and combined put me at 10,292 meaning I hit my second milestone of 10k words in 3 days.

Today I am going to reward myself for reaching 10k words with a lovely cup of fancy tea and a reading session with a comforting book. I have one writing spring this evening. I thought I deserve a bit of a break and I am only going to do one today.