Welcome to the second weekly update on the NaNoWriMo project for 2023! A Cage for Horrors was locked away in my mind for years and years, only expressed in my drawings. Now, it is time to see what the world actually looks like!
How did the past week go?
Public transit has not been my friend, in the past week. On Friday I came home a full hour later than I anticipated. Thankfully, as it was a Friday, I could also go on a little longer than usual. My frustration with the transit could be nicely channeled into some writing, so I went on top speed, that evening.
Saturday was the day of The Rock Circus, so I only had time for about two thousand words in the morning, between other responsibilities, before I had to go. That did mean that I had 2000 less words to write on Sunday, so I managed to finish my target of 3 chapters, that day. I did mark one of these chapters for rewriting already, though, for the events in chapter 5 felt… uncomfortable.
Monday and Tuesday were ‘normal’ days. I wrote a chapter each day.
On Wednesday I was only able to write briefly, typing enough to keep my streak going with another 2000 words. After that I had a meeting for Scouting, which is one of those social obligations I can’t escape from. I could make use of that headstart today, as I had to do less work to reach my chapter’s worth. I took those 2000 words and completed my chapter… and then wrote 3000 words for the next one in my motivation.
All in all, I have completed 9 chapters so far. If I include the extra work I did today, I’m almost 10 chapters in! It’s slightly over the average I strive for.
What badges did I earn?
In the past week, I earned the following NaNoWriMo badges:
- Update Wordcount 3 Days in a Row/Update Wordcount 7 Days in a Row. I kept the streak going successfully! Writing every day is fun and keeps me going, after all.
- Write 25.000 Words/Write 40.000 Words. I have almost completed the 50.000 words challenge… but I’m not even at a third of my planned story. I’ll need the rest of the month, too!
- Wrote 50.000 Words in November. Officially, I’m done! I’m also way too early, but this page will activate soon enough!
The amount of badges will slow down considerably in the next week. There’s only two more left to earn… and these are the streak badges. I won’t get the last two, as these require me to update every day and increase my wordcount by at least 1667 words every day. I just won’t be writing that long!
What happened in the story?
After two chapters of introducing my main characters, an instigating event has finally happened. Cadence and Darryl found the motivation to continue with the rest of my story, after which they gathered some unlikely allies… and met some unlikely friends.
Cadence has also been hurt during their investigation. Nobody is aware of how hurt she actually is, including herself… though before the end of the first act, it becomes clear that there is something seriously wrong. Will she be able to deal with it? I’ll have to find out while writing!
Finally, in the second act, Cadence has entered the darkness that she has been fearing so far… and Darryl has met a woman. Things can only go wrong from there!
How does the next week look?
Amazingly, I only have a plan for the Tuesday, when I have a bi-weekly roleplaying evening planned. I’ll probably write before that roleplaying starts, but I don’t anticipate completing a chapter. Besides that… there is nothing. I have time! Time to write!
That also means that this weekend, I will aim to write 30.000 words. Six chapters, a full fifth of my story. I’ll have to see if I can live up to that ambition!
Are we still on schedule?
So far, it looks like my overachieving on Sunday has balanced out missing the Wednesday. I stayed nice and disciplined during the rest of the week, so the 25th is still my target end date!
It does look like I’ll end closer to the 150.000 words than the 180.000 that I had originally been aiming for. I find that my chapters have been distributed very tightly and I have wondered a couple of times if I was even going to make the 5.000 words, already. Over the past 9 chapters, I have only added about 1000 words to the chapter count x 5.000, plus the 1.000 words of prologue. It’s fine, though, for the goal is 30 chapters, not 180.000 words.
We’ll see how close we can get!