NaNoWriMo 2014!

Are you participating? Tell me about your novel in a comment so I can keep track of everyone and cheer you on! What's your plot? How's your word count? Do you look like this yet?



Quarterly check-in: A few days ago I totalled up everything I had before the start of NaNoRhino and it came to 38K words, so I switched from unofficially participating to 'I can totally make 50K words by the end!'  Current word count is 43 115. I haven't done any actual writing in the last couple days because I've been planning the next chapter. >_>

Halfway check-in: I made 50K words today! I met my goal and it's only halfway through the month!  Not sure what to aim for next. I think I just passed the midpoint of my novel (perfect for a 100K word fantasy book) and my brain is eating itself from inside out, so I might take the rest of the weekend off to recharge.

Three-quarterly check-in: Plowing through those words! I just finished up chapter 16 of my novel, bringing me to 19 500 words this month and 57 500 total. I may be on the verge of burnout, but I'm going to try and stick it out until the end.

Final check-in: IT'S OVER! I hit a wall with a couple scenes that I only just resolved yesterday and I've had some things going on in real life, so the last week was not very productive. But I did pull my November total up to 21 500 words and my total total to just under 60 000, so I feel pretty good overall.

How did it go, everyone? Still alive out there?  



I wrote a new issue of BibLITothèque: the Writer's Library about charting scenes for your novel. Maybe I'll do another novel-specific issue soon for everyone who's moving onto editing their NaNo projects.

BibLITotheque 2: Scene ChartingOne-third of the way into NaNoWriMo! By this point you're probably thinking 'omg I wish I'd done more planning and given this monstrosity more structure,' right? Yeah, I'm with you. So let's talk about plotting your novel with scene charting.
Scene charting is exactly what it sounds like: building a chart that summarizes every single scene of your novel. You may have seen JK Rowling's chart for chapters 13-24 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which doesn't list individual scenes but serves the same purpose. It's a good way to keep everything organized and review your story in a concise, manageable way.
What's in a scene?
A scene is a piece of the story where something changes. That's it. You probably need a location for logistical purposes, but you don't even need characters. (If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, is

Some recent Flight-related stuff if you're curious: