nanowrimo

So yeah… running short several days, but I’m still making a big point of trying to write at least a little something every night. A couple hundred words is the absolute bare minimum. Next level I’m okay with is my traditional non-Nano quota of 500 words. And, of course, there’s the actual Nano quota. Over the last three days, I’ve hit one of each of these. Which means I’m still dreadfully behind by the Nano count, but it also means I’ve written new words for each of the last eight days running. That’s a big improvement over most of the year.

Chapter 3 is a good way towards done at this point. Melisanda has dropped a little bomb on Kendis, who really does not care for her arrival in the slightest. Team Kendis is about to figure out in the meantime exactly what to do with the Unseelie bard who’s pretty much fallen back into their laps.

And speaking of whom, for giggles and grins and in particular for , I’m going to give y’all another snippet. But this one’s bigger and spoilery if you haven’t read Faerie Blood yet, so I’ll stick it behind the fold!

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The last three days I’ve been running short on the word count–mostly because of the huge overnight release we had to run for work, which meant staying up until two last night. Tonight, I’m just running so short on brain that I’m lucky to get any words out at all, but I’m making a point of writing at least a couple hundred just to keep some momentum going. We’ll see how much I can make up over the weekend.

Good news is, though, Chapter 2 is done and I’ve brought another couple characters on camera. Millicent gets to make her first appearance, as well as another character who showed up in Book 1 and who will be back for more this time around.

Written on Tuesday: 777
Written yesterday: 901
Written tonight: 235
Chapter 2 total: 2,906
Bone Walker total (first draft): 5,464

As predicted, Chapter 1 turned out to be a bit short as my chapters tend to go. But that’s all good, because it also meant I was able to put a serious dent in Chapter 2 tonight as well. Elessir is now on camera, much to the consternation of Christopher and Kendis.

For amusement value, here’s a bit of a snippet from yesterday!

Christopher’s favorite band had come to town, and the audience was having the time of its life.

And I had to admit, so was I. The good humor and boisterous energy of the performers were infectious, and the music, irrepressible. I didn’t know the words to most of the songs, but on the strength of rhythm and melody alone, I was thrilled to clap and bounce along with everyone else. I didn’t mind that mine was the only brown face in sight, or even that half of the white girls in range were paying more attention to the man at my side than they were to the stage. Not that I could blame them. At six-two, clad in a black T-shirt emblazoned with the blue, red, yellow, and white of the Newfoundland flag and cheerfully bellowing lyrics he knew far better than I did, Christopher MacSimidh was difficult to miss. He’d spruced up for the concert, with a new shorter haircut that’d traded off his ponytail for front locks that dangled along his brow. For once he’d even shaved properly, baring an intriguing little dent in the line of his chin that I was certain was drawing the gaze of every straight woman and gay man at the show. It certainly kept drawing mine.

I am up a bit later than I like, but I did manage to meet tonight’s word quota and therefore preserve the small padding that I’d built yesterday. We’ll see if I can do this again tomorrow. And tomorrow’s plan? Finish Chapter 2!

Written tonight: 1,675
Chapter 1 total: 2,558
Chapter 2 total: 993
Bone Walker total (first draft): 3,551

Ladies and gents, my Nanowrimo effort is now officially underway, with a grand total of 1,876 words clocked in on Chapter 1 of Bone Walker. This is a couple hundred over the necessary daily quota, but that’s fine–I wanted a bit of buffer just to account for the couple dozen words always taken up by contact data at the beginning of a manuscript, and then the couple hundred I’d already tried to write to get this chapter underway.

And yeah, technically, I know you’re not supposed to start a true Nanowrimo effort before November 1st. I figure roughly 200 words could be safely ignored–and I dropped about half of those words anyway because I decided I didn’t like the paragraph.

Anyway, Bone Walker is out of the starting gate, you guys. For the interested, this book will be set roughly two months in time after Faerie Blood. And I’m already close to the end of Chapter 1, which feels like it’s going to run short as my chapters tend to go. But that’s okay. Because this means I’m also very close to the return of Elessir. Muah!

No word meter, because the lovely and talented Zokutou Word Meter appears to have vanished off the face of the Net. But I daresay I can soldier on without it.

Written tonight: 1,876
Chapter 1 total: 1,876
Bone Walker total (first draft): 1,876