NaNoWriMo came, and I began crafting my initial draft of Survival. When Veteran’s day rolled around, I came down with Shingles. Shingles! It took a few days for the pain to make it into my life. While the vacation helped me get a leg up on the writing, I lost most of the time I earned with the pain that lanced through my head. After being diagnosed, I heard plenty of horror stories about shingles, and I feared that I would be in for a rough few weeks maybe multiple months. Thankfully, I got the antiviral into my body before the pain started, because the pain didn’t linger.
Sorry for the mini-rant and now back to NaNoWriMo. I entered the challenge with an outline and a very broad idea of how the story would unfold.
Prologue:
Detail an assault upon the generational ship and the ensuing cry from the citizens for more protection
Chapter 1:
Daniel Corry is wrapping up a story about the latest disturbance in the smallest city, the latest fighting almost spilled over to the central city hands it over to his editor
Chapter 2:
Daniel is heading into his paper’s office and when he gets in he finds a portfolio on his desk he opens it and the first page is a typed paper that talks about missing people (one dozen so far)
The above blurbs are examples of what I opened with. While some chapters, especially the later ones, had a little more information, none of the thoughts were more than a paragraph. As the days wore on, I built out the web of the investigation that Daniel Corry would explore. While I love writing, I have to admit that I have a bit of a one track mind. I poured all the time I could find into the exploration of the world.
After twenty-one days of work, I hit the fifty thousand word goal, giving me the win. It was an incredible feeling to make that mark, the downside to the story’s scope was that that word count didn’t finish the story. For a hot moment, I thought about pushing through to the end, but I skipped the last few chapters for now. With the decision made, I buckled down and churned out the first Patreon post for November, Waiting for Results.
With one down, I have two more stories to flesh out, thankfully I have the bare bones of the project in place. Unfortunately, with the focus on Survival and my Patreon account, my Wattpad storylines suffered. The only story that might still get published this month is Harrison & Sylvia Part 11. Next year, I must be a little more prepared when NaNoWriMo rolls around so I can complete the challenge while not losing track of my other projects.