Day 16: Camp NaNo (April)

Lots happened since the last post, not just in terms of writing, but my personal life as well.

Courtesy

Today was Day 16 of Camp NaNo. Sometime this week, I upped my NaNo goal from 25K to 50K. Unlike NaNo in Nov ’15, I find myself much more disciplined this year. I have been writing almost daily and have mostly been ahead of my daily goal. I try to get a lot of the writing done on the weekends – because the weekdays are too unpredictable.

Thankfully, I have managed to write for about 30 minutes after lunch during work days as well. I think of it like an extended lunch break. At any rate, I do not have much of a life outside of work, so the writing bit keeps me sane.

I am currently at 32K words, pretty close to my target of 50K (yes, having written 32K, 18K feels like a cakewalk). So far, I am proud of what I have achieved in terms of my current project. I have never been this far into any novel. I am almost halfway through the story of Sukriti – a housewife whose husband is alcoholic and whose young daughter blames her for everything that is wrong in the family. The second part of the book will be from the daughter’s POV. For some reason, I feel writing the daughter’s POV is going to be more challenging for me that the mother’s. Somehow, inside my head, I can feel Sukriti, understand her motives. I do not know yet if I understand her daughter, Maya, so well.

I have to outline her side of the story soon, because I see myself reaching the finish line with the mother’s POV soon. And unless I have a plan for the daughter’s POV, I am going to be stuck and the word count will suffer.

Courtesy

On the personal front, I have been going through some tough times. Had to take a hard decision in terms of relationships this week. So far, I stand by my decision and I hope that I will see myself through it.  I need some big changes in my life right now.

Thankfully, I spoke to a lot of people this weekend, which helped me keep my mind off the immediate worries. I spoke to a lot of people who I had not spoken in a long, long time. So that way, good things are happening.

When I was younger, I was okay with loneliness. I even cherished the silence around me. I cherish it now as well. But as I move into my twenties, I realize that I am craving relationships and support more. I feel the need to connect to people, speak to them and be in touch.

Hopefully, I will be at a better place by the end of this year – have some clarity in terms of what I want to do with my life.

What’s up at your end? Did you visit some new place this weekend? Tried out some new dish? Share with me bits and pieces of your life in the Comments below. Like I said, it feels great to be connected.

Day 1: Camp NaNo (April)

Hello folks! I have been missing from the blog-space for a while now. Hope you all are good!

Today is the first day of the April Camp NaNoWriMo. This time, I have set myself to write a 30K word novelette, along with a bunch of other writers in our cabin in the Camp, including fellow blogger, Joynell. I had last participated in Camp NaNo in July, 2016 which had given a huge impetus to complete my second book, How I tamed the dragon named fear.

As a writer, I am constantly challenging myself to do something different with every book that I set to write. My first book, Bound by Life, was a book of short stories. My second was a self-help non-fiction on Fear. But the book that I always wanted to write was a novel, and hopefully this attempt at Camp NaNo will take me closer to that goal.

I have tried my hands at novel-writing in the past as well, unsuccessfully. I found it very difficult to stay in a story for a long time, especially because I write in the moment and do not really plan beforehand. This time, I changed my tactic. Through the last week, I have been outlining the novelette in the small time that I get after work everyday. I have a good head-start that way. All I have to do now is stick to the plan, take one chapter at a time and nail it down.

As it happens, it is already midday in India and I am done with 4.3K words. I have the rest of the day to myself. Hopefully, I will be able to utilize the time and finish a large share of the word count today itself.

With the kind of work hours that I have currently, I might not be able to write much during the week. Hence, a good word count in the weekends will help me still reach the goal. Although, I feel the most important part to NaNo is to keep writing everything,no matter how little it is.

Are you Camping this April? If yes, what is your project about? Drop me a note in Camp messages. I am more than happy to meet new authors this way.

NaNoWriMo: 2nd update

For the first time in the last seven days, I completed the daily word count in WriMo. The goal for Nov 7 was to double up the word count. I aim to achieve that goal today.It would not only mean reaching the day’s goal for, but also reaching the overall goal of completing the entire word count of the first seven days of Wrimo-ing.

Though there are still more than 3000 words to reach that goal, I am under no pressure. The word count is the least of my headaches right now.

The main worry is to have a story to tell. Like I said before, I had not started out with a plan for the novel, so I am kind of writing on the go. I only pray that by the end of the thirty days, irrespective of the word count, I will be able to tell a complete story. Oh, what thrill it would give me to put the words ‘The End’ at the end of the Word document!

I’ll go read up some stuff on my Reader now. I feel to bad for neglecting it in so long! Oh and for those of you who have no seen the latest header on my blog, here it goes! I made it today on Canva. Let me know what you think of it.

Have a great weekend, folks!