The End of Week One – NaNoWriMo 2015

I… really didn’t mean to disappear on the blog when the last week of October hit, but OH WELL. I mean, my only real excuse was last-minute NaNoWriMo preparations… and then NaNo itself. 

It’s been an interesting week. I finished out Day 1 with a lot of word-padding – 3,039 words total. The goal is 1,667 words per day to do 50k in 30 days, just fyi.

 

We had a midnight kick-off and a 5-hr write-in on Day 1, and that really helped get the words flowing that first day.

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Write-in's going swell! One more hour… #nanowrimo

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However, I am definitely not cut out for midnight kick-offs anymore, and I think I paid for it on Day 2 with a FANTASTIC migraine. And I was very grateful that I only had to write a few hundred words to reach my quota for Day 2 – 3,333 words.

Day 3 went great, and I wrote 2,776 words, and then Day 4… flopped. I wasn’t able to do nearly as much plotting as I normally do pre-November, and it was starting to take its toll. Days 4, 5, and 6 were spent doing the damage control from that, and figuring out what on earth was going on in my novel.

Today, I caught up! Write-in days are pretty awesome. I beat my monthly-best so far this year from Day 1 and wrote 3,329 words today, for a grand total of 12,085.

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Full write-in today! #nanowrimo #amwriting

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Random (unedited) Excerpts from ‘The Queens of Heaven’ (tentative title)


Dread began to curl in the pit of her stomach, a nasty, spinning creature just waiting for her to move wrong and turn into nausea. She quickly put a damper on it, blocking the sensation from her mind. Numb. She had to be numb. Despair would only get her into more trouble.


The form let out a startled cry, and Aileen stumbled into the wall, barely keeping herself from slamming into it face first by throwing her hands up and letting the heels of them take the brunt of her fall.

“Who is there?” a quiet, young voice trembled in fear. A voice she knew.

Aileen’s heart was pattering a mile a minute in her chest, and she was torn suddenly between a feeling of horror and utter relief. They both felt like her stomach dropping onto her feet.

“It’s just me, Lina,” Aileen reassured the girl. “Queen Ailee’.”

Lina had long ago declared that ‘Aileen’ was too close to her own name, and since her name had been ‘Lina’ long before Aileen was queen, Lina had quickly nicknamed her ‘Ailee’. But only when Whitaker wasn’t around.


She wrinkled her nose at the smell of it as Whitaker uncapped the decanter and pulled both tumblers toward him, filling each nearly halfway. He slid her glass across the table, and her fingers wrapped around it with a slight grimace.

“You will finish that while we talk,” he said.

“Of course, m’lord,” she agreed.

He raised his glass first, to her. “A beautiful queen is worth much,” he gaily toasted. “A powerful one has worth beyond measure.” He brought his glass to his lips and sipped. “And, well, you are both.”


What’s your current writing (or creative) project? How’s it coming? Are you doing NanoWriMo this year?

Recent Comments

  • jazzfeathers
    November 8, 2015 - 2:44 am · Reply

    I think you’re doing great, Rebekah 🙂
    I’d really like to try a wirte-in, one day. Pity there aren’t any where I live, because they look fun.

    I like your excerpts! I’m in the process to typing my first draft into my computer, and I’m shocked how badly written it is. I mean, I’ve always known my first drafts suck, but because it was years since I last wrote one, I supposed I had forgot. Your first drafts sounds so clean!

    Keep writing!!!!! 🙂

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About Rebekah

Rebekah Loper writes character-driven epic fantasy featuring resilient women in trying and impossible circumstances who just want to save themselves but usually end up saving the world, often while falling in love.
She lives in Tulsa, OK with her husband, dog, two formerly feral cats, a small flock of feathered dragons (...chickens. They're chickens), and an extensive tea collection. When she's not writing, she battles the Oklahoma elements in an effort to create a productive, permaculture urban homestead.