NaNoWriMo update

Hey guys! As I said in my post last Monday (I think), I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year to write the sequel to last year's novel. I'll be posting weekly updates on Sundays (yes, I'm aware that's it's been Monday for like 25 minutes as I write this).

Last year, I started off with low expectations. I was actually participating in the watered-down NaNo version an author I admire was hosting on her blog. The goal was  30,000 words and they could also take the form of short stories. That was my aim. I thought I was writing a cute little warm-up short story....
Yeah. Turns out it was more like a huge monster. I had 66k by the end of the month and finished at 95k at the end of January.

I only finished the first re-read this week. Starting off at the sequel was difficult. The first day, I didn't get around to writing a single word. It was past midnight on Nov 2 when I forced myself to at least jot down 1000 words. I wasn't sure where to attach the sequel to the previous story, how much to repeat. Hell, I didn't even remember all that had happened! I wasn't done re-reading yet. I felt that my writing was unfocused and all-over the place. Just... awkward.

That I got ill on Friday didn't help. My nose is clogged and my eyes hot and itchy from fever as I write this. But I caught up on Saturday, chucking out around 3000 words. After day 4, I'm at 6745 words now and kinda proud of myself for holding on despite how much of a germ heap I feel.

They're not all good words. I'll probably delete half of them in the re-write to speed up the flow of the story. But I needed to get them down, to find the voice of my main character again and write myself into his world, to see how it changed and how his choices at the end of book 1 affected him and his surroundings. I feel like things are getting moving now and hope that the words will start to flow a bit more easily.

And no, like 100,000 words into the story (if you look at it as a big whole) I still haven't outlined anything and only have like 5 pages of notes. I feel like an amateur, but well... it's working? I tried plotting and outlining. I really did. But my brain just dries up and nothing comes to mind. Either that or really clichéd, overdone plot strands that make me want to quit. I have to write the story for it to come to me.

Anyhow, I'd be curious to see how my fellow Wrimos are doing! So if you read this, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your own NaNo updates! You can also add me as a writing buddy. My username is ButterflyGhost.