This has been the longest week of my life, and I’m really not sure how I managed to hit my weekly goal, but y’all, we’re in the home stretch now.

Monday

Am I ever going to write on a Monday? I was about to say probably not, but apparently I wrote 8k last Monday, wow, this is embarrassing, I’m really only here to make you thrash around your kitchen with me:

WITH

CANNONS

I was meal prepping last night (hence thrashing in the kitchen), and I was picturing my sister witches meeting my vampire detective for the first time at his Boston house, and of course, when they walk in, he’s listening to the 1812 Overture because that’s how he lives his life. Anyway, I was in a full band in high school, and the hardest thing we ever did was get the ending of 1812 correct, which is a hellish time, but also hellishly fun. The original version has cannons instead of timpani drums, though, and like–just imagine me, in full Gryffindor pajamas, space buns in my hair, flailing a knife around in between dicing tomatoes while cannons are turned all the way up on my headphones.

Yup.

Andrew totally saw this live when it first premiered, too, and totally feels super cool about that.

SOMETIMES WRITING HAPPENS WHILE YOU’RE DICING TOMATOES, OKAY!

Word count: 25,755 (from last week) + 0

Tuesday

I really, really, really just want to read today, but I need to get these damn words written, so here I am, putting the 1812 Overture on repeat because I’ve been dreaming about Andrew lately.

oh my god wow this is just not happening

I wrote 1,573 words, and every single one of them was a struggle.

Well, that was interesting. I switched over to sister witches because I was angry and? Um, okay, so I wrote a post about what happened to me today, and I’ve linked it here. Basically, I had a new male character in sister witches. He was literally just going to be a side character, but he’s a side character in Ileana’s life, and she’s our POV for the new coven, so we’ve actually been seeing quite a bit of him. Originally, David Baum was white, Jewish, and blonde, but that was before I really knew anything about him. And he, um? He just walked into the apartment, and apparently Zariah was cooking Cuban rice because apparently Diego‘s abuelita used to cook it for him all the time when he visited.

Excuse me???

I was in the middle of trying to add a section in the Pinterest board for him, too, and I kept gravitating toward Latin men with super curly hair, and well. Here we are. His name is Diego Reyes now, and it really set me back for a minute.

I didn’t have much left of the day, but I wasn’t able to write for any of it because I was just trying to figure everything out. I teach yoga on Tuesdays, so I drove to the studio, still pretty confused, and I feel so bad for my students because the first half of my class was just a mess of me being so distracted and teaching purely what my body wanted. Like, I’m pretty sure I did everything on both sides, but I wasn’t really focused, and that’s definitely not a good way to teach, but halfway through, everything snapped into focus. I’m not even joking. All of a sudden, we were in the middle of a weird lunge thing, and I just–there it was. There’s the plot for this book. It’s all there, and it’s been missing, and apparently all it took was David Baum transforming into Diego Reyes.

Writing is so fucking weird, but I wrote another 1,467 words today, so I’m not caught up, but I’m also not terribly behind anymore, and I can guarantee that’s going to change tomorrow.

Word count: 25,755 + 3,040 = 28,795

Wednesday

I’d like it to be known that I intended to write all day! I’m very excited about the next two chapters for sister witches because they’re in Theodore’s POV, and we haven’t been with him yet, he’s my favorite. I have written 1,517 this morning for an Ileana chapter, but I have a last minute appointment at 1PM today that’s going to take up a large chunk of my afternoon, and I have to teach after work, so I’m not sure that I’ll actually get anything more than that done, which is annoying because I really want to.

I swear, figuring out who Diego actually was meant figuring out literally everything else.

wow hi I’m exhausted, but I’m gonna do some damn writing

Long story short, I got home around 7:30PM, ate dinner, lounged about for a bit not really sure what to do, and then decided I was going to write some damn words. Eventually, I really need to finish reading Sorcery of Thorns so I can get around to The Queen of Nothing, but I really wanted to write this chapter, and oh boy, it was a good one.

2,808 words later, and this song on repeat for an hour:

I may have briefly traveled to Ireland in this chapter? It was absolutely delightful, and it’s totally happening again. Anyway, it’s 11PM now, which is way later than I wanted, so I’m off to bed!

Word count: 28,795 + 4,325 = 33,120

I think I’m caught up now? I don’t have my spreadsheet in front of me, so will have to check tomorrow.

Thursday

I am caught up! I’m actually a tiny bit ahead because my word count for today is now 620 less, which is actually great because I’m going to do something today that you’re not supposed to do during NaNo.

This month is about writing. Just flat out. Get those 50k out. Here’s the thing, though. I really don’t work well like that? Usually, when I write a chapter one day, I’ll immediately go back and edit it the next day. And I’ve been trying not to do that this month, to just keep plowing through, but there are some glaring errors that I know about that are really starting to make my eyes twitch, so I’m going to spend today going back through the first nine chapters of this book because it’s literally making my writing worse now having not done that.

I also need to actively sit down and plot this out since I never really did. I have the basic arc in my head, but I never wrote any of it down, and I need to figure out where the first act should be ending because right now, I’m pantsing, and it’s making it hard for me to write. (Remember when I made an announcement post about finally writing my vampire detective story, and then abandoned it, like, three days in? SIGH.)

So, today is about editing and plotting, which is fine. Otherwise, I’m going to limp through that finish line, and I’d really rather not. I’ll probably have some words to add through editing anyway, but we’ll see! I’ve got the latest Julie Fowlis album on, and I’m just going to power through.

Well, I edited the first chapter and added 87 words, and I’ve just finished up outlining, and it ends with it’s all chaos, so if you were curious how this book was going to end, yup it’s a cliffhanger.

When I texted my friend, she said, “biiiiiiiig surprise” because I am 100% known for cliffhanger endings. I’ll wrap it up nicely in the series finale, but all bets are off for any book before the last one. Saintsverse is perhaps my favorite cliffhanger ending, but this book is going to be pretty good, too. I love a solid who knows if they’re dead or not ending.

Okay, I’m done with editing my chapters! I feel so much better with where things are at now, and I can actually settle into this properly and move forward. I only added 607 words, which brings me up to 33,727, which actually brings me about halfway to my 2500/day goal. To reach my weekly goal, I need to get another 3700 words by end of day tomorrow, and I could honestly probably crank that out right now, but I have another last minute appointment in about 20 minutes, and then it’s just me and my mom home tonight, so we’ll see.

Word count: 33,120 + 607 = 33,727

Yeah, nope, this has literally been the longest week of my life. After we went out for seafood, I read 100 pages of Sorcery of Thorns because I need a goddamn break.

Friday

Today’s music for this insanely heavy chapter I’m writing is:

Obviously, I’m still with Theodore, which means my Ireland vibes are still kicking (yes I know Julie Fowlis sings in Scottish Gaelic), and this is totally fitting the mood of the chaos that’s going on right now. The last chapter with him was so sad and so soft, but we’re learning a lot about his beginning in this one, and it’s actively the worst thing I’ve ever done to him, so this morning has been super fun.

I AM DONE

I’M GOING TO READ A BOOK FOR THE NEXT FOUR HOURS GOODBYE

Word count: 33,727 + 3,621 = 37,348

I needed to make it to 37,500 to round out the week, and I’m below that by 152 words, but I am exhausted and I made Theodore cry, so it’s time for me to ignore writing for the next two and a half days and read to my heart’s content.

Community Check-In

Sophie Li @ Sophie’s Corner broke out the self-care tips, and yes to all of them! It’s so important to remember to check in with ourselves throughout the insanity of NaNo and make sure we’re still meeting basic human needs, like sleep and occasional socialization. If you don’t step back, eventually you’re going to get stuck.

---

This week was a big ole’ struggle fest for me, both in regular life and in writing, but I feel confident moving forward in the last week now that I’ve got my plotting done. I’m a little nervous since next week is Thanksgiving, so that’ll take out a huge chunk of time I’d normally have to write, but I’m just going to make the best of it and see what happens. I’ve got to write 12,652 words next week to hit the 50k mark, and it actually feels possible.

How’s your third week been?