It’s half-way through November, which means it’s about time to write my second Nanowrimo journal. This past Thursday I finished my first Nanowrimo book of the year, which is also the 9th book in my Blood Rage series.
The first draft’s total length is currently 105,892 words, the second longest first draft I’ve ever written. As long as it is though, I know the second draft will be longer as I fill in the subplots, character development and make sure that all 5 main characters interact with each other at one point in the story or another. I know the one character doesn’t really interact much with two of them.
There are other things I’ll need to fix up with this story as well. That said, I’m satisfied with how it turned out. The action feels intense and there’s a lot of variety with it. The ending is emotionally harsh in some ways for the main characters, but also brings a sense of hope. And of course it also sets up book 10 in the series. At this point the books in the series tie in with each other more, as they build up for the final book I have planned, book 12.
For those who don’t know, this Blood Rage series is basically James Bond with Vampires and Werewolves, and the first book takes place during the First World War. The main plot is that the main characters are trying to prevent an all-out war between vampires and werewolves throughout western and central Europe. I’m in the middle of trying to get that book published, by querying literary agents. No luck so far, but I’m not ready to give up yet. I can’t say much about Book 9’s plot, other than it’s the book where vampires and werewolves are revealed to humanity at large. Saying much else would spoil plot elements from all 8 of the previous books. Even saying one particular character’s name would be a major spoiler.
In the meantime, I’ve started working on my retail comedy and, well … I’m having difficulty with it. Normally I can pump out between 2,000 and 2,500 words in an hour. With this book, I’m getting closer to 1,400 words in an hour. It’s not just because I’m writing a comedy though, it’s because it’s starting to feel like I don’t have enough material for a full-length novel and I’m struggling to stretch it out. At this point I might just shorten it to around 20,000 and move on. Maybe I’ll let it mature over the next year, adding things in whenever they come to mind, or eventually release this as a longer short story.
Right now, I’m thinking of wrapping it up tomorrow and then I’ll just spend the rest of my month working on a few Blood Rage novellas that will each be about 30,000 words or so. One ties directly into that spoiler character’s name, yet it takes place before book 1. Another will be from the perspective of a main character from book 4. Even though they survived, they haven’t appeared anywhere else since, so I’m probably going to write them a novella trilogy that leads up to her next major appearance in book 11. I might do some complete rewrites as well, or some extra scenes for some of last year’s Nanowrimo projects that I haven’t touched since.
Honestly, I’m starting do doubt that I’ll surpass last year’s word count, and that’s ok. I’m well on track to at least passing 2014’s word count of 150,000 (I have less than 14,000 words to go for that and I’m nowhere nearly ready to stop). And if I do pass last year’s word count of 191,000, that’s great.
As for attending my local write-ins, this week’s been a total bust. I’ve been scheduled to work for every single write-in this past week so I’m stuck writing at home. For my word count that’s fine, because I write my fastest at home. I’m starting to miss the other local Nanos though. Another thing I’ve noticed is that November 30 is on a Monday this year, so I’ll probably have to work late that night. So much for the mad dash to midnight if that happens.
Maybe I’m just in a bit of a downer mood because my comedy writing is much slower than I anticipated, but I’m doing alright. After I’m done with this post, I’ll be writing a few notes for my first novella of the month and a fill-in moment I forgot to write for my first book of the month.
Until next time, good luck to anyone who’s participating in Nanowrimo 2015. Whether you win or not, this month is about personal bests.
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