Camp #NaNoWriMo Day One #My150NaNo

Today is the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and as I announced on Monday, I’m going to aim for 150,000 words this month instead of the typical 50,000 since I’m full time now and wanted to do something a bit more challenging.

It was a good day to start the writing challenge because in the late morning, I had plans to take my kids to a homeschooling event. Why is that good? It forced me to focus early in the morning and make sure I got my words done.

No excuses today, and I really didn’t want to kick the month off behind.

So, this morning I got up with my alarm (instead of hitting snooze…which is most tempting at 4am) and got to work.

Then I opened the Scrivener file for my newest novel (book number 8 of my Transformed series) and then I turned on some music that helps me focus, and got to work.

I spent a huge chunk of yesterday outlining my novel using Libbie Hawker’s method so I was prepared to start with the blank slate. That method really helped me get to the point where I know the story and have everything in order to keep me from meandering or writing myself into a corner.

In order to write even faster on a daily basis, I need to write story beats the day before so I know exactly what I’m going to write. Nothing like a blank page to stunt a word count!

What are beats? It seems that every author has a different idea. For me, it’s about a paragraph telling what will happen in a chapter. It’s perfect for someone who loves to write by the seat of her pants. Sure, I outline and write beats, but I still have a ton of room to let the story go crazy. That’s what keeps things interesting, right?

So, as you can see in the screenshot at the top of the page, I came in at 6217 words for this morning. Great start to the month! I can’t wait to hit 150,000 words on April 31st!