I have never participated in NaNoWriMo before and technically I won’t be participating this year either. However, I will be setting myself a goal that I can only accomplish if I write a significant amount daily. That goal is to finish my WIP The Last Queen of Terrivea. Yesterday I finally broke the 50,000 word count mark and I want to keep going hard into this month.
So I plan on writing like a maniac when I’m not at work to get this manuscript finished. There are two reasons why I want to do this.
- This is my first novel and I want to get it finished as soon as possible so I can get into the editing phase. The way I think of it is that the quicker I finish writing, the sooner I can get to editing and revising, and then the closer I’ll get to publishing my first novel.
- I have officially found myself a Critique Partner and I feel like I should get my manuscript finished as soon as possible so that I don’t slow down our critiquing process. We haven’t started yet, since we’re just working out a schedule, but I am looking forward to working with my first CP!
If I finish The Last Queen of Terrivea this month, then I will have finished a full manuscript in about 6 months! Now onto how I’m going to achieve my goal.
Since I’ve already got 50,000 words and I think I’m between half and two-thirds finished, I feel like I don’t need the exact same daily word count as other NaNoWriMo writers. I want to write at least 1,500 words a day, but knowing me I will miss days, so the plan is that when I miss day I will add the daily word count onto my catch up days. For example: I probably won’t get my 1,500 words in tomorrow (because I’m going into the city), so I will plan to write 3,000 words either today or on a later date to make up for tomorrow.
1,500 words a day for the month of November will mean I will be writing a total of 45,000 words, or as many words until I’ve finished my manuscript. I’m quite excited to meet this goal! I’ll be posting an update when I’ve reached the goal this month.
Wish me luck and thank you for reading,
–Lalia LaRose
Lalia LaRose 