[Camp NaNoWriMo] Week Four Wrap Up

Just three days left in Camp NaNoWriMo but I don’t want to break my Sunday tradition. I’ll have a short wrap up on Wednesday also including my overall Yays and Nays.

I finished #50in5 on Friday. On those five days only, I wrote 55,167 words between two novels. I finished my first draft of Shard of Sea and am maybe 10,000 words away from finishing the first draft of The Lies of Jade and Ivory. If I can finish that up by Wednesday, I will consider myself all set writing-wise until the beginning of the semester in September.

Draft one of my thriller is also finished! I finished it around 3:30 pm, after a series of sprints. There’s a lot to do to make it a little more coherent (I had gone off tangent once or twice) but overall, I am pleased.

It’s a strange feeling, finishing up a trilogy. I know there are subplots I carried through all three that are now concluded. There’s a twist that I liked at the end, that I think I foreshadowed in the first novel. And the story of Mae reaches a satisfying conclusion to readers, I hope. She never succumbed to the monster inside.

Things I’ve Noticed During Week Four

July is my writing month.

The Wrap Up

Words Written: 30,587
The Lies of Jade and Ivory: 10,076
Thriller: 19,013
Shard of Sea: 1,498 (last minute clean up)

Total So Far: 134,185

Favorite Scenes:
The Lies of Jade and Ivory: The confrontation in the throne room
Thriller: Bay finally seeing Mae’s true eye color.

Biggest Concern:
The Lies of Jade and Ivory: Figuring out how to tie the ending together. I wrote something too soon, I think, and it will take a bit to catch the rest of the plot up.
Thriller: Editing. The whole trilogy.

Biggest Celebration:
The Lies of Jade and Ivory: Hitting the climax and now moving to the big battle.
Thriller: It’s Done!

Goals for the Last Few Days:
Words: 6,000 words
Challenges: Finish up Camp!
The Lies of Jade and Ivory: Try to get to the battle scene.

[Camp NaNo] Week Three Wrap Up

(Sorry this is late. I went to update on Sunday and we had a major blackout. We’re still without power so this is sneaky work writing.)

It’s almost over! Camp NaNoWriMo has been successful this month, as July usually is for me, despite the two lab classes I’m teaching. My last day of classes is Tuesday, so I expect to be able to finish off the two novels I am working on sometime next week, provided the parents and the in-laws are still willing to babysit (they are loving it and I would never want to deny them…).

I have technically beaten both of my Camp goals:

60,000 words in my Thriller
30,000 words in Shard of Sea

But that last one was meant to finish that novel. Shard of Sea is being stubborn, having great scenes come to my mind that I need to include. But it’s nearly done and I expect it to be so.

The thriller wasn’t meant to be finished, but it very well might be. This series has always written very fast for me because the MC’s voice and head is easy to slip inside and write. I hit my goal faster than expected and with ten-ish days yet of 3k planned a day, I can finish that one off as well.

And then I take a shot of whiskey and get ready for edits…

The Wrap Up

Words Written: 39,706
Shard of Sea: 23,286 (and the novel is finished!)
Thriller: 16,420 (and the novel is not finished!)

Total So Far: 103,720

Favorite Scenes:
Shard of Sea: Battling a Sea of skeletons in the eye of a hurricane-like magical storm.
Thriller: Striking Kerrington… with a car.

Biggest Concern:
Shard of Sea: Well over 90k now. The concern is to find the plot of the third book and tie in all the loose ends.
Thriller: Wrapping this thing up…

Biggest Celebration:
Shard of Sea: IT’S FINISHED! Draft One Done!
Thriller: I think I figured out how I should move forward and who will die. Blackouts are helpful.

Goals for Next Week:
Words: 25,000 words
Challenges: The last day of #50in5
Shard of Sea: 0 – Replacing with…
Lies of Jade and Ivory: Figure out where I was…
Thriller: Get to the 80% mark!

[Camp NaNo] Week One Wrap Up

Here we are on day seven of Camp NaNoWriMo. I like competition so this really helps me focus on finding every ounce of free time I can to get words onto paper (or screen). It also helps that it is during the summer and the normal course load at the university is lightened. Two lab classes and minimal administrative responsibility is much easier than four classes and full administrative responsibility. I can even sneak in some words on the (rare) lunch break.

The Split

I’m writing in two novels for Camp NaNo: Shard of Sea (high fantasy); and my final installment in a thriller trilogy. Shard of Sea is the novel I am doing #50in5 with, so it’s word count will be really boosted once a week (with twice a week happening next week). The thriller I am trying to get at least 2,000 words in every day. So far, it’s been good!

Things I’ve Noticed During Week One

I found that if I am warring, I can focus on words for a short amount of time. Unfortunately, the baby does take away from that if she needs something, but I can do them after she’s fallen asleep for the night, or when she’s cooking dinner with the spouse. Waking up early is productive, but it all depends on how sleep was the night before. If I had a bad night of sleep once, I can handle it and go on. If it’s been multiple (as in the week I’ve had with Miss Teethy Sick), I’m pretty useless.

The Wrap Up

Words Written: 33,401
Shard of Sea: 10,289
Thriller: 23,110

Favorite Scenes:
Shard of Sea: The fight between the elfin scouts and the necromancer
Thriller: Mae finding out de Milo is the new chief

Biggest Concern:
Shard of Sea: Figuring out how the magical map works. It came up mid-writing.
Thriller: Who the real Big Bad is. I had an idea but now…

Biggest Celebration:
Shard of Sea: Slipping right back into the partially finished novel without a hitch
Thriller: Recalling Mae’s voice and being able to “think” like her again

Goals for Next Week:
Words: 25,000 words
Challenges: one day of #50in5
Shard of Sea: Get to the reunion scene
Thriller: Have Kerrington escape and the fallout from that all squared