I Am Making Progress On My Book
NaNoWriMo Update Day 8
What I am writing about during this November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) turned out to be a teaching memoir. It’s my story as a channel with all the different things I did to take myself from a 30-year-old non-psychic being to a psychic channel five years later. The most intense study was conducted during those five years; however, I would say that I spent many more years prior to that developing my spiritual beliefs and the framework I would need once my studies became more focused. My studies have never stopped, so it’s always lively.
I used Atticus as my software for this book. I had intended to use a new program to me called Bibisco. I didn’t leave enough time to learn Bibisco before November 1st. I will use it at a later date.
I am on track with my writing. The entire manuscript will be 50,000 words written during November. I intend to finish that and, in the rewriting and editing phase, increase whatever I end up with at the end of November. An acceptable word count for a book of that sort, I figure, would probably be anywhere from 80,000 to 120,000 words.
On October 31st, I made a rough plan for the book and a beginning chapter count of ten. I still have ten chapters, but expect that number will very likely change before the book is done. I have already begun to rearrange the chapters as I write. I began writing on November 1st, though my first few days were slow and below what I expected. I began to pick up steam on the third day.
Much of the subject matter I used in articles I have written on Medium are finding their way into this narrative. Thirty days later, you have a book or the beginning of a book.
This is a first draft, and although I find myself traipsing around between the different chapters and at the same time doing a bit of rewriting and editing, that’s just the way I write non-fiction.
I awaken in the morning with what I will concentrate on with that day’s work or with a thought to add to already written material.
Sometimes, I just look at the word counts for each chapter in the Excel spreadsheet I pictured above thinking, “Oh, that one looks sparse. I’ll write there today.” I will typically write what I intend for the final word count that day and push myself if I’m not quite there. In the picture above, you’ll notice I was off by 12 words for today’s work. Twelve schmelve. It’s good enough for government work, as my father used to say.
Typically, my best writing time is in the morning. I have been breaking around 11 a.m. and resuming in the evening.
Reporting to you updates on my progress is also helping to keep me accountable.
The Links: NaNoWriMo.org — National Novel Writing Month Atticus writing software Bibisco writing software