NaNoWriMo Week 1

It was October 31st, two nights after Hurricane Sandy hit, and I was stuck in my apartment with no power.  My office in lower Manhattan also had no power.  Con Ed said I could expect to wait up to two weeks.  My office manager told me the building would be closed until at least the end of the week, if not longer.  And November 1st would be the first day of NaNoWriMo.  Like all difficult things I commit myself to, if I don’t stick to a strict regiment, I don’t stick to the commitment at all. And I knew that I wouldn’t be able to play catch up if I missed the entire first week of NaNo.

And these are such silly little inane problems to have in the middle of a hurricane (and far less important than the real problems of my neighbors in other regions of NYC and NJ).

But alas, on Wednesday night the power came back up (only to go back out again and then return again!) and I was back in business by Thursday morning and ready to NaNoWriMo.

The first thing I noticed about this process was that I was surprised at how much I already write on a given day.  I’m not one to keep strict count of how many words I put away, and my method of constructing a story is often so all over the place that I do not realize how much of a dent I have made.  Well, apparently I often put away around 1,000 words a day just writing on my train trip back and forth to work.  Add to that writing on my lunch break and writing on my free time at night once Logan was asleep, and I managed to pack away an easy 1,600…and sometimes over 2,000, on a given day.That makes me lucky.  Not everybody has that kind of ease with writing.  And I had days where I felt like I was dragging the 1670 words out of me with a tug boat.Still, somehow I managed to survive a stomach virus, visiting relatives, and children that wouldn’t sleep, and still come out above my writing goals.  So far so good, although I am only just ending my first week.

Here are my word counts for week 1, posted here to keep me honest.  Initials stand for different projects I’m working on.

Short Stories: OH, C2SS
Novel Length Urban Fantasy: LK
Novel Length Romantic Comedy: LI
Novel Length Space Opera: DG

11/6: 1,007 words of LK, 1,259 of OH = 2,266

11/7: 1827 words of LK

11/8: 1405 words of LK, 1086 of LI = 2491