NaNoWriMo 2017 – Update #1

Hello fellow Wrimos, planners and pansters!

How is November treating you so far? It’s fifth of November and I just finished my daily quota of writing for the day. Currently, I am on 9K words. Yes, you read that right! I completed 9,000 words already! Yay!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am not working on a novel this NaNoWriMo. I am working on a compilation of short stories. I am done with #1 and currently working on #2. Initially, the target was to write stories of around 2K words. I overshot the target by 4K in the very first story (so it ended up being ~6K). The second one is already around 2K and it has quite some way to go.

Overall, I am really loving the experience. I am glad that I am still going strong in the daily target. I am especially happy because, I have been down with a viral infection and had been feeling very poorly until yesterday and even then I made sure I finish my daily quota.

The coming week might prove to be a little more challenging because my new project at work commences tomorrow and it can make my schedule go awry. But I am determined to be disciplined this November and really end on a good strong count.

In fact, this year, I feel much more confident as a writer than I ever previously have. A lot of that can be attributed to the variety of experience I have had this year which has made me a strong person and also brought me in contact with a lot more people. I am hoping it will make my writing only more nuanced. Besides, it had been some time since I had really bothered to sit down everyday and do some writing – I had been out of practice since Camp NaNoWriMo in April ’17, so it’s great to be back to the habit.

How’s it going for you guys? Are you going strong? Are you facing any roadblocks? Are you taking part in any of Virtual Write-Ins on Youtube/NaNo website? Let me know in the Comments below. I am excited to be part of this journey together!

Until later, write more, because we live to tell stories! ❤

My first NaNoWriMo!

2015 seems like a year of many firsts for me. I had signed up for my NaNoWriMo account probably in July. Suddenly, it is almost November and NaNoWriMo is about to start!

Honestly, right now I have zero preparation for the novel I am apparently about to write this November. I have no plot/draft planned. October was a busy month – with the big move and then the settling down. In between all these, I wouldn’t blame myself for having forgotten all about noveling plans.

Yesterday, I logged into my long-dormant NaNoWriMo account and set up the title and the synopsis of the novel. It was done quite late at night, in the span of an hour or so, so it’s perhaps not the best product that I could come up with. But I will go ahead and share the synopsis with you:

The Delayed Adulthood

Author: Arpita Pramanick

Genre: Mainstream

Synopsis

Asha is 22. She has recently completed college and moved half-way across the country to start her career.

She has a print out of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost pasted on the wall of her room. A picture of taken with her family sits on the fancy shelf of her lavish apartment.

As she delves into the nooks and crannies of the corporate world, she remembers the young girl who used to walk on the terrace of her parent’s home, talking to herself about the things she hopes to do when she is grown up, only faintly believing that all she imagined might one day come true. Or maybe not.

The Delayed Adulthood is a coming-of-age novel about a bespectacled, nervous girl who is unsure of the effect she has on people. Slowly, as the places and faces in her life change and life opens up new, unfamiliar avenues, she is faced with that itchy question that has plagued all of us at some point in our lives: Is growing up even worth it?

Honestly, I have no clue if I will be able to churn out those 50,000 words in 30 days. Yet, I want to participate in this because I need writing to become a daily habit for me. Having entered job market, I know how well time needs to be managed in order to squeeze a few minutes for our creative outlets. Just so I don’t get into the habit of eating, going to office, sleeping cycle where there is no time to write, I want to experiment with NaNoWriMo.

Writing a novel is particularly daunting for me, because I have tried that without success. I had written four-five chapter for more than one could-have-been novel, but none was completed. Most of the time, having written the first few chapters, I did not know how to proceed. So, with just a few hours to go before this noveling bee starts buzzing non-stop across laptops and papers all around the world, I am at a loss as to where to start from. Thankfully, tomorrow is a Sunday, so maybe I will be able to give it some thought and come up with a plan for the novel. Wish me luck!

What about you? How has your NaNoWriMo experience been like? What would your suggestions be for me so that I can see my novel through completion? Please share your thoughts with me in the Comments below. Also, if you like, feel free to add me as a writing buddy on NaNoWriMo! See you there!