Hello creative friend,
The past two weeks have seen the end of Inktober and the start of NaNoWriMo. Both challenges that I take part in for my own benefit. This year my energy levels are taxed to the limit, and some days are more difficult than others to achieve the daily word count target of 1667 words.
As usual I get started with a bang and the words flow with ease and without too much thought. I am a pantser at heart, but this novel, Jarod's Choice (working title only) has been brewing in my head for a while now. Before the start of NaNoWriMo I had already written about 12,000 words to get the story started. So it was not as if I was staring at a blank page on the first day. But then the notorious second week arrived and the struggle set in.
It was hard. Harder than every attempt at NaNoWriMo I have had before. Just writing 1700 words barely takes me two hours, but this time it took me nearly a day, everyday. I had my personal computer next to me on my desk while I was working and typed a few words here and there when taking breaks from work. It was difficult to say the least. Then Friday morning arrived and I decided that a change of scenery was called for. So I waited until load shedding was over, packed my stuff, donned a waterproof jacket because it was raining, and moved my butt to a local Wimpy.
Since I had already had breakfast, I ordered coffee, a slice of their decadent triple chocolate cake and got to work. Whether it was the coffee (I had two mugs) or the chocolate cake, or both, but the words came easily and fast. I could hardly keep up with my characters.
If these words will remain during the editing process is a concern for another day but writing more than 2000 words in an hour and a half does not often happen to me. Definitely grateful to the writer's muse who showed up when I was at the keyboard. The words have continued their flow since and I think my characters are happy with me, otherwise they would just make me struggle some more. LOL!
When the words were tough, I spent the time to work through the edits of the last chapters of Keeper of the Dragon Key. I still have to proofread the whole manuscript again, but I have set some time aside for that after I finish NaNoWriMo.
So it is back to writing now.
Thank you for reading.
Until next time!
🇿🇦💜Linzé