ALYSSA LOST IN SPACE

My first week has not gone smoothly, and I honestly can’t figure out why.

Maybe trying to blog every day, finish my novella AND meet my goal for NaNoWriMo was a bit too ambitious. As of writing this, I count only my actual nano novel towards my 50k goal, even though I’m writing a ton of blog posts and trying to work on my novella at the same time.

I’m getting a bit of decision paralysis, and I’m also not enjoying my ‘candy project’ as much as I thought that I would. I figured that enthusiasm would carry me a lot further through the draft than it is, and I just wanted a palette cleanser – something new and different to what I’ve worked on in the past.

In case you missed it, yesterday I posted a moodboard and a brief synopsis for my NaNo novel, which I’ve codenamed ‘crystallia’, and it was meant to be a fun and indulgent slow-burn space fantasy romance. And I’ll be honest, romance isn’t really my thing. I’m more of a mystery-action-magical battle sort of gal. Not that I’m opposed to it, but it’s not the sort of thing I normally gravitate towards. At least, not the sort of thing that I like at the forefront of my stories. So while this was meant to be a fun adventure, it’s also taken me out of my comfort zone in a big way. I’m also not as prepared as I usually am, and I think it’s just been a bit too much to handle. I should have prepared more, but I figured I had enough of an idea to get me through most of the first draft.

Shame on me. I know my process at this point. Whether it’s a fun project or not, NaNoWriMo is hard, and it demands a strong work ethic if you want to make it through to the end with 50k.

12-Hour Writing Challenge Results

Remember that writing challenge I did on Saturday? I only made it to hour ten before I was ready to collapse, but I did get a lot of writing done.

To start off, I wrote about 2000 words on blog posts which I then had to edit. After that I switched over to my novella, as per my goals for this NaNoWriMo and I wrote over 1000 words in that draft. It was at that point that I finally moved onto my actual NaNo novel, and I managed to get to roughly 2600 words before my brain imploded. A very productive, if mentally exhausting day.

And I didn’t really feel any burnout, and I think I owe that to the mini-breaks between each hour, but I was just not motivated to work on it the next day, or the day after that. Tuesday I really buckled down and wrote another 3300 words towards my Nano novel only for it to fall by the wayside the day after that. It’s becoming a pattern.

My current word count is 6035, which is where I was at when I finished on Tuesday. I’m hoping I get some big word counts over the next couple of days because I have a busy weekend ahead of me, and I doubt I’ll be able to get much writing done.

I’ve fallen behind, but I’m going to keep writing. I’ll have future chances to make up the ground I lost, and hopefully I can work out a system that lets me balance everything I’m working on this month.

Otherwise, I might have to rethink those goals of mine.

How’s Your NaNoWriMo Going?

How is the writing going for you? Are you ahead? Behind? Managing to stay on track? Have you struggled at all? Let me know down below!