After a three day weekend off to deal with personal matters Monday rolled around. Only the rest of the world didn’t care that it was Camp Nano and they were getting in the way of my main character finally exchanging claiming vows with his true-mate. I’m sure this is the sort of offense one would take to the Hemlock High Courts, but unfortunately we don’t live there. lol So, Blake and Jonah had to wait a bit.
All joking aside, keeping up with Camp NaNoWriMo this week has been an uphill battle in stilettos while fighting off a hungry dragon. But the good news is I managed to stay on the hill. I wrote every day this week (so far) and am on schedule to finish on April 30th.
Monday’s Word Count: 875
Tuesday’s Word Count:1577
Wednesday’s Word Count: 2360
Today, I’m back in the swing of things. I’m tired, but I’m excited for a lot of the scenes coming up. I still have one tweak I have to make towards the end of the plot. Well, around chapter 25 which I’m only 4 chapters away from. I won’t finish this novel by the end of the month, but I will hit my 50k goal. I had planned for this book to be shorter than Healer’s Oath, but Blake and Jonah had different plans.
After Camp ends I’ll likely take a week off to recharge my batteries before charging in to write the remainder of the book. Happy writing, fellow campers!
Today I was dragging ass to the keyboard. I’m in the middle of cutting down my nicotine gum dosage and it’s kicking my butt. Somehow, I still made it to the keyboard. Though, I confess somewhat reluctantly. In my early twenties I took Aikido classes with my then roommate. Before each class I dreaded it. I came home after working in a small parts factory exhausted and the last thing I wanted to do was drag my lazy behind to a class. When I arrived and things got started I usually enjoyed myself. My daily writing usually feels much the same way. So, today I dragged my ass to the keyboard and got to work.
What I accomplished today:
Today I deleted my plot and went rouge. I finished chapters 8 and 9. Today, I found my groove. I’ve also resigned myself to the fact this book is likely to be as long as Healer’s Oath. I don’t mind writing longer books. I just feel sometimes they take longer to publish and I make you guys (my readers) wait longer for the next part of the story.
I’m still only aiming to write 50k words this month. It’s a decent writing goal to accomplish. Without taking into account any surprises coming up later this month this is when the Camp NanoWrimo site predicts I’ll finish up the first 50k of the book.
Of course, I’ll be trying to beat this. I’m very competitive with myself.
Snags Along the Way:
Today the biggest snag was being tired, but the most problematic for me was tossing out my plot. I spent a lot of time tweaking it the other day, but I wanted more action in this book. Jonah (the Alpha) is a man of action. He’s been cooped up in the so called civilized world for too long and he’s ready to break loose. I wanted to give him a chance to show off his mad protector skills. So, that meant deleting about 500 words of what I wrote yesterday. Don’t worry I made them up today and my word count reflects my up to date word count for the story. Soon, I’ll need to start thinking of a title. With my first 3 books I didn’t change the titles at all. I knew what they’d be called from the moment I sat down to write. With Ardan’s Oath and Healer’s Oath I went through a handful of titles before I settled on one. This time I’m clueless. Soon, I’ll think of something. But for now it’s still just Blake’s book.
How today went:
Starting Word Count: 14,260
Total Words Written: 3,069
Ending Word Count: 17,329
After thoughts:
As a reader I love the moment at the end of the book where all the pieces of the books add up. As a writer those pieces have to come together a lot sooner for me than the end of my book. I have to know pretty early on how they come together. (Okay, pantser do this differently, but I’m not a pantser. lol) Today, I feel like I’ve found the flow of the story and of both of my main characters. With this discovery I know what’s next for the Hemlock Wolf Pack as a whole. This is building up to some very exciting books for the future! I can’t wait to wake up and write tomorrow.
Tomorrow is another day and another fight scene. Jonah is ready to kick some ass! I hope the world is ready for him! I love Blake and Jonah together! ❤ I can’t wait to share their story with all of you!
Goals for Tomorrow:
Tomorrow I want to break the 20k barrier! I also hope to finish the next plot scene and start working on getting Blake pregnant! Yep! It’s time for me to play matchmaker and fertility goddess. Though, Hemlocks usually ask Juda for help with fertility. Oh well, since I’m his creator Maggie will have to do instead.
This morning the universe conspired to keep me away from the keyboard or at least away from my Camp NaNoWriMo project! But alas, as a writer I have learned to laugh at the universe and jump over boulders. lol
But no really. If this morning happened during any other month (well maybe not Novemeber) I would have stayed away from my book for the day! But it’s April. It’s Camp NaNoWriMo! So, I carried on like a good like book zombie. After switching the weight of todays and tomorrows word count I only needed to write 900 words to stay on track. There was no way 900 words was going to stand between me and staying up to date!
What I accomplished today:
Today was all about chapter 3 and 4! Both of which are finished. I think tomorrow I’ll be ready to go ahead and work out the rest of the plot. If not tomorrow then definitely Friday which was my original plan. I sprinted past my word goal for the day and came in just at 2k words. I can feel myself settling into my main characters and really getting inside their heads.
Snags Along the Way:
Today errands sprung up out of nowhere and a reader messaged me to say Healer’s Oath isn’t showing up on Amazon.au! I’m so sorry if any of you reading this have been patiently waiting in Australia for Healer’s Oath! I’ve contacted Amazon to find out what the problem is. I’ve published four previous books without any problems and this morning I discover Amazon is hiding my book from a whole country!
How today went:
Starting Word Count: 6,578
Ending Word Count: 8585
Total Words Written: 2007
After thoughts:
I’m a little on the nervous side about figuring out just how many chapters book 5 will have. Once I do I’ll have a better idea of how long the book will be. If the chapter lengths so far tell me anything I think it’s going to be *slightly* longer than just 50k words.
Maggie Hemlock Books 