First Draft November, Days 2 & 3
Progress: 3,570 words. Total word count: 5,272.
2/30 days of First Draft November done! It’s not a lot, but it’s technically a 100% success rate so far. In other words: Worth celebrating.
It you have zero clue of what I’m talking about, check out Day 1’s post below. And check out First Draft November.
Day 2
Today’s word count 1,902. Total word count: 3,606.
Today I woke up with a lot more clarity about my character. Which is great because today’s lesson from The Novel Writing Workshop is on character development!
The first exercise seemed a bit bizarre at first, but I was surprised to adress so many aspects of my character and their life simply by figuring out what they carry in their purse. Amy said “You need to know.” I didn’t trust her then. But I did, indeed, need to know.
The second exercise was to answer the Proust questionnaire which is not that odd. But I’ve always found it incredibly tedious. It is. I’m glad I did it, though. It was incredibly helpful, especially as a follow-up from the previous exercise.
The third exercise was a bit funny, because diary entries are crucial to this narrative! I debated whether I should write an entry I’d use later in the story. But I settled for a reflection type of entry. Just random thoughts my character may have if they sat down to write down their thoughts. Which, if you knew anything about them, you’d know they really, really should sit down and write their thoughts.
After two hours of writing, we’ve gotten 1,902 words down! Well over the limit! Making my total FDN word count 3,606 words.
Here are the first and last sentences of the day. Just because.
Olivia walked out of hid bedroom looking for him.
…
‘You asfixiate me.’
I continued from what I wrote yesterday, but after developing my character a bit more, I realised I’ll need to go back and edit those first 1,704 words heavily. But that’s a problem for another day.
Day 3
Today’s word count: 1,668. Total word count: 5,274.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, FDN will provide a question to “spark curiosity and move [our stories] forward.” (So, I’ll be skipping The Novel Writing Workshop on those days.) Today’s question—questions, really—were:
What does your protagonist think they want?
What’s really missing from their life?
How might this tension show up in the way they speak, act, or move through the opening pages?
The past two days, I struggled putting my character’s wants into words. But Kailey’s post gave me a lot of clarity through a more nuanced exploration of what a character’s wants can be, and a concrete example! I love a concrete example. It also reminded me that I have quite a bit to edit already. And it’s only Day 3.
It took me almost two and a half hours to write 1,668 words. That’s slightly less than over the weekend. And I pretty much forced the last three words onto the page. But, hey! Every writing day brings us one step closer to a finished manuscript. And we’re already 5,274 words in!
Here are the first and last sentences of the day:
‘He’s cute, don’t you think?’
…
Maybe one day.
Subscribe to follow along as I struggle to write 50,000 words in one month. If you’d also like to give First Draft November a try, join the challenge here.
This is an awesome log !