Connecting Threads and Creating Joy | NaNoWriMo Writing Update #3

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I’ve made it through week two of NaNoWriMo! It went shockingly well and I learned a lot about my creative process. Let’s talk about my current word count and writing highlights in this NaNoWriMo Writing Update!

What’s this Writing Update Thing?

In case you’re a little confused about why I, a book blogger, am suddenly talking about writing, don’t be alarmed. I’m participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and decided it would be fun to share my progress with you!

You can learn more about the project I’m working on and my goals for the month in my first writing update post! If you’re also participating in NaNoWriMo or just decided to give it a try, you can be my buddy on the website and we can cheer each other on!

If you’re curious about my writing journey so far, here’s my last NaNoWriMo Writing Update Post:

• Space Cities, a Mystery, and Unexpected Discoveries | NaNoWriMo Writing Update #2

My NaNoWriMo Word Count in Week 2

I managed to hit the daily word count of 1667 words every day! This is always a goal I have for my NaNoWriMo but sometimes, life just gets in the way. So I am very proud of myself for consistently writing that much for two weeks straight!

I finished week two of NaNoWriMo on Sunday with 23,486 words. That’s a little more than one day worth of words ahead! Actually, as I am finishing writing this update, my word count is actually already at 28k!

Crossing the halfway mark of 25k is always exciting and a little nerve-wracking. I am definitely not halfway through my story and I’m already thinking about just committing to writing daily in December too and seeing where that takes me.

State of the Draft

This week was about following characters, exploring my world-building, and pulling on threads of ideas and plotlines. In short: it was a very fun week! I spent one entire writing day essentially following one of my characters to work. I find a lot of joy in exploring the daily mundanities of my characters, it always teaches me a lot about who they are as people.

In past years, I often struggled to move the story forward as much as I wanted to and I am happy to report that somehow, this year it’s a lot easier! It’s still not very fast because I am literally creating this world and story almost from scratch, but there’s momentum! Things are happening!

Overall, my favourite part of week two was finding ways to connect all the random characters I’ve introduced so far. As of right now, they’re all connected in one way or another to the unexpected mystery I discovered in week one (aka a bunch of people disappearing without a trace). I still don’t quite know what that’s about but I’m super excited to continue following that thread for the rest of the month!

The only character who is still a little bit separate because I haven’t made enough choices about her yet is the person who I originally thought would be my MC. The poor woman is currently stuck on a spaceship nobody properly taught her how to fly, on her way to a deserted planet. Oh, and there are a lot of definitely totally fine and unimportant technical malfunctions…not an issue at all, I’m sure.

As you can see, I’ve been having a blast this week. Discovering this story has been incredibly fun, every time I sit down to write I look forward to seeing what I’ll unearth.
There are a billion unanswered questions, plotholes, and pure shoddy world-building, but I feel like this world already has a beating heart. There’s something alive in there and now it’s my job to build the story around it, and have it support that little spark of life.

Trials and Tribulations

As expected, I still struggled with my chaotic pantsing style of writing. It has brought me a lot of joy to jus go on and discover bits of my world, but it has also made me feel a little lost.

Here’s a confession: I didn’t complete any of my goals for week two. If you need a refresher, my goals were:

1. spend 2 hours plotting the “lonely person sent to a deserted planet, nuclear semiotics shenanigans” part of this story
2. create a master document of all characters and world-building details I’ve come up with so I can keep track of everything
3. Update my research and decision-making list with the things that came up this week
4. Try to hit 25k words by Sunday!

I simply forgot about them or couldn’t get myself to sit down to plot, plan or organise my thoughts. Looking back, I think there are three reasons why I failed to achieve those goals.

1. I didn’t remind myself of them often enough
2. I didn’t plan specific times to accomplish them
3. The goals were simply too big

Honestly, these three reasons can be applied to most of my failed goals, writing-related or not. So what do I do about this?

My Goals for Week 3

I’ve been feeling pretty overwhelmed recently and decided to take two days off from most responsibilities to reset my space and brain. Reflecting on the struggles of my last writing week led me to consider how I can best serve myself and my story. And my conclusion was this: do less.

I have a habit of overcommitting myself and setting goals for the most ideal version of myself. However, most days, I simply cannot show up as that ideal person. And my goals should reflect that!

So here are my goals going into week three (that’s already halfway over, whoops)

1. write every day, try to hit the wordcount but don’t stress about it
2. spend 30 minutes on Saturday and start my world-building and character document. Start with my main group of characters.

That’s it. Just two goals. Phew, doesn’t that look more achievable already? It sure does to me!

As much as I would like to be the kind of writer who is great at keeping track of world-building and can create detailed outlines, that’s not who I am. Right now, my writing is chaotic. But instead of trying to force myself into a rigid routine of how I think I should be working, I want to honor my circumstances and lean into my natural process.

I want writing to be fun! I write for myself, I don’t have a deadline and nobody is ever going to read this draft, really. So why am I putting unnecessary pressure on myself? For the rest of NaNoWriMo, I want to embrace what makes writing fun for me: uninhibited exploration and the permission to have fun.

One of my favourite characters who sparked a whole plotline and helped me flesh out another character is a reluctant cat sitter! I love writing about her interactions with said cat, it brings me joy. And as I am learning more about my writing process, I am realising that spending time exploring these seemingly useless aspects of my story is what allows me to write it in the first place. All these scenes about my characters’ daily lives build the foundation for the bigger story. So I am going to lean into that.

Let’s Chat!

📚 How is your writing going?

📚 Have you discovered anything about your creative process recently?

I hope you have a lovely day,

If you like my work and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee!