MYWYN Update 1

So May – You Write Your Novel is on day nine. How am I doing?

I'm keeping up to the target. My official count at the moment is 8847 but that doesn't include today's total of which I've so far written about 500 words so I'm over the magic 9000 words mark. I've found it harder than I expected to write 1000 words a day – it's more likely to be 2000+ every two days – but that's due to other things happening. I'm working on that. For now, I'm happy to be keeping up.

The way I'm writing this novel is a real departure for me. As I explained here, at the last minute I chose to try writing something based only on a vague outline I had of a few characters. I've never worked on something where I didn't at least think I knew the ending, even if I changed my mind along the way. So far, it's gone surprisingly well. Every time I sit down to write I wonder if today is the day that I have to give in and plot something out, but so far so good. It has to be said though, that I haven't read anything back yet so how much of what I've written will actually be usable is debatable. I know there's at least one thread that, at the moment, is just hanging in mid air so will either have to be deleted or added to in the first edit. In chapter two, my MC briefly met someone and learnt something about her that was really amazing. I'm now on chapter four and this hasn't been mentioned since. I'm sure there are other places where similar things are occurring but isn't that what edits are for?

One thing I really wish I'd done from the beginning is create my usual 'bible', where I list names, places, descriptions etc. as I'm writing. The story is going so well at the moment that I'm scared of jinxing it if I read it back so it'll have to wait, and I'll just have to try and remember people's names as I go along!

So, for now, I'm very happy with the way things are going. Here's to another week!