Here we gooooooo!
OH HELL YOU’RE WELCOME! Starting off good, guys. Seriously, anytime I hear or say the words here we go, I immediately break out into this song. Sim, I am a 90s child through and through. I may honestly have to listen to this to get things started.
I’m going to break down each day below, including a word count for the day & overall, and I’ll post on Friday afternoon. I write in the morning M-F, from about 10AM-1PM, so I’m hoping to get this up right after lunch on Friday. I’m aiming for a chapter a day, which is about 3500 words, so my weekly count should be somewhere near 17,500, which, sim, will get me to 70k words. We’ll see if it’s actually going to happen, but fingers crossed!
Monday
It’s going to look like we’re starting off poorly since I didn’t write on the first day of NaNo, but I didn’t plan on it. I was in Maine visiting my best friend for Halloween, and I didn’t get home until 4:30PM, which meant I only had an hour at home before I had to leave to teach yoga, and then it was back home to do laundry, bake bread, and read my 50 pages for the day. Thus, my weekly count will be a little lower to start off, but my real NaNo badassery begins tomorrow!
Tuesday
Tudo bem, I’m starting things off at 36,359 words already written for my story. Oh, this is late in the post, but ICYMI, here’s my announcement post. I’m writing the sequel to a book I finished in September, and I’d like to finish the sequel by end of year, so I’m planning on kicking major butt for the next two months.
Aside from writing, I’ve got 37 pages to workshop before tomorrow night when Sara & I meet, plus I’m not letting my reading slip by the wayside this month, so I’ve got to read 50 pages for a published book, too. And, I’m apparently supposed to be reviewing The Two Towers this month, so I’ve got to fit that in somewhere. I’ve also got to write a blog post before tomorrow, as well as all the ones for next week, because I’m just so behind and have nothing scheduled. I have so much to do, my goodness. But I already know who my next POV is, so I’m off to get writing!
Today was one of those days where I’ve been listening to the same song on repeat for about two hours, I had to look up a canto from Dante’s Inferno, and trusty old Google translate was brought out for some quick Greek. Which, honestly, that’s a lot less than I normally have to do for this book, and I probably should have also dug out my train map from Portugal to England, butttttt I didn’t feel like it, so here’s my mood today:
Seriously, though, this song is so damn good. Erin showed it to me over the weekend while we were night driving to help us write, and it’s excellent. I like ADONA’s other music, too, but this one just vibed really well with the mayhem I’m about to unfold. Today’s chapter was very much a waiting one, an in-between one, a we’re about to set everything on fire, but we gotta get there first chapter, and while I normally get antsy writing those, I’m really excited this time around. So much is happening at the same time right now, but the stories have been split into threes, so it’s even more chaotic than usual. I’m about to reunite half of the characters, so we’ll fizzle down to two stories, but even then, one side is trying to rescue one of the MCs while she’s in the middle of setting fire to the entire house where she’s being held captive and it’s torrential raining out! And the other side is sneaking through the catacombs under the Vatican to try to escape exorcism and being buried alive, sooooo? We’re having fun? Sure!
Anyway, word count for today because it’s noon, and I’m done with my chapter, which I’m stoked about finishing early because that means I’ve got more time than expected to do all my one million things!
Daily word count: 3,809
Final word count: 3,809
Wednesday
I truly wasn’t sure I’d be able to write today after last night. I was up until about 1:30AM watching the US election results come in, and then I woke up periodically to check and see if it had changed at all. By the time morning rolled around, we were still hanging steady at waiting for the last swing states to come in, so I put my glasses on, made some tea, and tried to conquer the deal. Thankfully, my chapter was in Florence’s POV today, and she had a wild chapter. She nearly escaped her captivity, was allowed to cry a heck ton, which she doesn’t normally do, and said a big ole fuck you to the world, so I was pretty much vibing with her the entire chapter. It was a bit cathartic to be able to write in her POV today, so I actually managed to get quite a bit done today!
This is going to be short because I still have so much to do. I’ve got my writing workshop tonight, and I have three chapters to read before then. I’d like to do more blogging, but I don’t know that I’ll realistically get that in, and I’m trying not to think about just how far behind I am on blog hopping, but yeesh, it’s a lot.
Anyway, writing is done for the day, and I’m happy with where I am!
Daily word count: 3,597
Total word count: 7,406
Thursday
I am just so tired. This week is awful, and though I’m doing everything in my power to combat the stress and anxiety that’s trying to slowly murder me right now, it’s truly an uphill battle. I’ve got crystals in my pocket, lots of tea to be drunk, and peppermint salve on my temples, but oi. This is hard. Thank goodness for this book, honestly. If I didn’t have it to distract me, I’d probably crawl into a grave right now.
Anyway, let’s get to it! I’ve got so much blog hopping to catch up on, which I’ll hopefully do a lot of this afternoon, and I’d really like to spend a few hours reading tonight rather than just a quick one, so let’s get cracking on the morning and write another chapter. It’s Freddie’s POV today, which means lots of angst & skeletons!
There were originally no horror elements in this story, despite Freddie spending a solid portion of his time in the catacombs under the Vatican, but then I went up to Maine for Halloween, and Erin & I did a bunch of night driving because it’s a good writing tool for us, and I finally figure out how to linger in the catacombs and make it scary, so I’m very excited today.
Did I mean to put on ADONA’s version of Hit Me With Your Best Shot again? No, but it’s happening anyway. Truthfully, what I’m mostly listening to today is Ruelle, but specifically this:
I’ve listened to the Emerge EP a heck ton while writing both of these books, and though I don’t listen to her other music as much, Oh My My is a Freddie being a badass song through and through, Monsters is Florence to a T, and Where We Come Alive recently became an Irene song. I love all of Ruelle’s music so much, but when I need that spooky vibe, I put on the Emerge EP.
WELL THAT WAS FUN. Good grief, this second book is hard. Poor Freddie is really being put through the ringer, and while he’s going to be okay in the end, it’s rough right now, and I feel so bad for him. We’re officially out of the catacombs, though, so he’s now on his way to brighter days! Well, there’s still a legit exorcism to be performed, his father to face, and Florence to rescue, but we’ll get there eventually.
And look at that! I’ve hit 10k, which I know is absolutely ludicrous this early in the game, but I’m hella stoked about it because that hopefully means I’m on track? Eh, not really, I’m supposed to hit 17k each week, but I missed a day with Monday, so this’ll have to do for now.
Daily word count: 3,256
Weekly word count: 10,662
Friday
This book is a mess. One of my MCs was supposed to kill one of the characters, but I have fucked them up so bad that that’s no longer looking possible. Sooooo? Oops? I’m still undecided on what I want to do. Either a) I wait for that MC to get better, thus leaving the character alive for a bit longer, which is kind of not at all realistic, b) someone else kills the character, c) could also do something horrible.
I did the something horrible. It’s going to be wicked and wonderful, but also just wretched, and I’m excited. I ended up adding an additional 1,120 onto my chapter from yesterday to lay the groundwork for that something horrible, so now I’m later in the day starting my chapter for today, but it’s definitely worth it.
OH HECK YEAH! GUESS WHAT I DID! I have officially reached 50k for the book, which is just a little under halfway, and I am so stoked. The chaos has only just begun, and there’s so much damn destruction coming that I absolutely cannot wait to write. I’ve also got way more space than I’d originally planned for the aftermath of everything, which I’m actually really excited about because there’s going to be some huge fallout, and I’d like to take the time to explore that.
Today’s chapter was 3,428 words, which is a solid daily total when combined with the additional words I added to the last chapter, and I could keep winding down here if I really tried, but the ending of that chapter was emotional in a lot of ways, so I’m tired, and I’m going to go grab some lunch and read for the rest of the day. I’ll leave you with the song I just listened to on repeat for the last hour and a half:
Daily word count: 4,548
Total word count: 15,210
Mary and the Words 
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