Closing In On The NanoWrimo Victory Line

Well, It's only the 18th of November and I'm 37,499 words into National Novel Writing Month. I'm on the downhill slide to 50,000 words, which the Nano site tells me I'll reach by the 24th if I keep up with my daily average of about 2,000+ words.

Not sure why, but this year has actually been a tough one for me in Nanoland. This is my sixth year doing this and each of the last five I had no real issues with staying interested in my novel. This year though, I've already lost some interest in the storyline and the characters. I debated before I started Nano if I should switch to a different novel idea, but decided not to. I should have.

Eternal Midnight, the rough draft I'm writing for NanoWrimo, is the first standalone book I've written that isn't part of a series. It bridges the gap between two series and has new characters that don't have anything to do with my Black Earth series or my upcoming Expired Reality series. The struggle has come from out of nowhere. The storyline is pretty good, the characters are decent. Maybe it's just because of how busy this month is for me. At many points this month, I've found myself rather wanting to devote the Nano time to other projects and maybe that's why I feel so detached from this story.

I'm determined to win Nano though. There have been years past I've won it in eight days. Some tricks I use when I'm desperate to cross that finish line? I'll spell out contractions, such as 'is not' instead of writing 'isn't'. Gives me two words for the price of one. I'll also skip around the book and write random dialogue encounters between characters. Dialogue usually gives me a great chunk of word count for the day. Sometimes I'll also go really lengthy on the description of certain objects or places just to milk the wordiness for all it's worth. And finally, I'll simply start writing random scenes with my characters in them. Might end up in the book during the final drafts or might not, but either way it's part of the Nano novel.

I'll pass that victory line and score me another year of Nano winnings. I have to. Nano is in my blood.