NaNoWriMo Week 3: The Full-Time Writer

Did I mention that November is Hell?

This November has been the worst I can remember in terms of demands upon my time, even more so than the grad school years of 2012 and 2013. This week brought another 55-hour work week at my day job, which left very little time for keeping up on NaNoWriMo. The half-way party also meant another lost day. My writing came in large chunks, especially day 10 and 16, which encompassed over 6,000 words of my count for the week.

I am on vacation from the day job this week. I like to take a few days off during NaNoWriMo and fall in to what would probably be my normal full-time writing schedule. I am hoping for between 2000 and 3000 words each morning with editing on other projects in the afternoon. I am only a day behind as I write this. By the end of the week I ought to be sitting pretty going in to week four. It will be nice to do nothing but write, even if it is on a temporary basis. I think that is the fantasy of a lot of writers. So few actually get to do it. It will be nice to pretend that I am one of them for a week.

Very Dangerous People is going well. I made a discovery that will have a profound impact upon my story’s conclusion, a secret that I can’t share. I need to save it for any of you that may read the book in the future. That is one of the joys of “pantsing” (writing without an outline). I’ve had a character change genders on me, and now another character has an agenda that I never knew was there.

I’m happy with the story, and while I know there is going to be a lot of work to do after November, I have high hopes that the novel will be worth it. This should be the best NaNoWriMo yet.

Jack Campbell, Jr.

Jack Campbell, Jr. is a dark fiction writer in Lawrence, KS. His writing has appeared in various venues including Twenty 3 Magazine, Danse Macabre, and Insomnia Press. He writes about reading, writing, and life on his blog at www.jackcampbelljr.com.