Finish a novel 2024 accountability thread

[OctoblocksAssemble]

Hey, I was on one of these a couple of years ago and got the first draft of my novel pinned down in a year. Working on the sequel now so I thought I'd start another one.

So, my project. Book 2 of a trilogy, the first book is 2 drafts in, but I'd like to get 2 and 3 at the rough draft stage before I take the first any further. I want to have a good handle on the whole plot
It's a YA fantasy.

Just checked, I've got 2k words on the proper draft.

Don't underestimate how words can pile up. 500 a day can be maybe 2/3000 a week. 52 weeks in a year you can do 100,000, with breaks for no writing happening.
Average first novel is about 100,000. A year to write a novel is nothing.
I know, I'm the person who never finishes, but word count is not the problem. 😂
So I wrote just over 500 myself yesterday and I'm trying to get started today now.
@OctoblocksAssemble so you are re-writing book 1 while you write book 2, is that right?
I don't have that sort of brain! Kudos to you.

@heldinadream I'm mostly focused on book 2 right now, one of the POV characters featured in book 1 as an antagonist, so I think that as I figure him out in more detail I'll be able to improve his part in book 1. I'm hoping to end up with something that weaves together nicely, but I have to watch myself that I don't stretch characters motivations too far. That's been a bad habit of mine in the past, ie planning a betrayal and then scrambling to justify it.

Nearly 800 words today.
I am optimistic I will finish this one (but this optimism is not new and so far, misplaced!).
Anyone else cranking out words? 😂

I would love to join you please. I've been writing a book forever....really want to achieve it this year!

I've ordered a basic laptop so I can start writing from Weds this week. I have a work laptop but they are pretty strict on usage!

Plan is to be up early before ds and use that quiet time.

Sounds like you're making good progress so far!

200 words today, not quite got into the swing of it yet but it's something.
Hello @Valhalla17 , where are you at with your book?

Well done, every little helps. I had a productive day, started the second novelette in my series and wrote 2000 words.

I'd love to join! I've got the whole thing plotted in my head and need to get it out!

715 words today despite massive distractions. Is it flowing though or is it disjointed nonsense? 😂

No word is wasted!

Hello, @fixies , welcome to the thread. What sort of novel is it?

1,756 words added today, some new, most though had been written out of sinc, and I was just importing them into their proper place. Still, I'm going to claim it as it was in a separate document, and not included in my original word count 😆

I'm up to 22,853 words right now...so a ways to go! I'm also writing a YA fantasy novel.

I've got my new laptop set up now and managed about 270 words this morning. It felt good to be back at it! Hopefully I can up my word count over the next few days.

Joining! I used to love writing and I wrote prolifically when I was a teenager and during my early twenties - sadly writing has fallen by the wayside and I’ve found it really hard to get back into since having kids! My DDs are almost 6 and almost 3 so I’m starting to get a bit more time back in the evenings and I do get bits of time in the day (I’m a SAHM and my youngest does no nursery/preschool but my oldest is at school) so I’m determined to try and pick writing back up again and finally finish one of the book ideas I’ve started! There’s one I really want to carry on with, it’s aimed at older children. My target at the moment is to start writing at least 100 words a day, so starting very small. Will be checking in here to try and keep myself accountable, we can do this guys!

So I actually just wrote 170 words starting something completely new after being inspired today to just get something down! An idea that I had a week or so ago for a YA fantasy setting just suddenly started to catch my imagination and before I knew it I had ideas for two main characters and a name stuck in my head for the protagonist. So maybe starting something completely new will be the way to go!

Well done @HappyLittleTreeFriend 🙂
I wrote about 500 words today, flip all yesterday and 18 the day before! 😂

Just wondered whether anyone was using a template or software like new novel/scrivener/plottr for plotting - and especially for working out how the subplots dovetail?

30 words, it was a tesco day 😅

Hello @HappyLittleTreeFriend , sounds like a great start. I also abandoned my incomplete pre kids novel, and started something totally different based on a dream, as corney as that sounds. Sometimes new is the way to go.

Well done @heldinadream 500 words is awesome 😊🤘and @OctoblocksAssemble I don’t think using dream inspiration is corny at all, take it where it comes 😊👍🏻 I’m so glad I’ve started something brand new actually, it’s almost like a weight has been lifted and I’m actually feeling excited about writing more tomorrow!

I’m at 13,000 words. Have written every day except yesterday.

I'm at a slightly tricky point where I have to bring in new info and having to decide how to do it….

Trying to gear up to get started on today's section. I'm working off a very detailed outline I put together late last year ahead of starting this first draft. I had a paragraph or three detailing what each chapter should contain. But looking at my outline for the chapter I'm at today, I don't know what I was thinking. It feels like I decided a huge amount of really important events would go into this one chapter that feels very unlike how I outlined every other chapter. Obviously as I've written the first draft, I've veered away from the outline at times. Added strands, dropped a couple of ideas that feel unnecessary, moved things about a bit. But this outline just stands out as so very different stylistically to the others that I feel, I must have had some sort of idea about how I'd write it in a way that wouldn't stand out in the novel and this morning, I'm completely stumped!

Ok. That wasn't actually so bad. I just picked a point to start from and powered on through. After a few hundred very messy words, some strained ideas were forced out and eventually some pieces fell into place so I got a bit of a flow going. And some inspiration struck. Which isn't to say that it's not a big mess. But that's fine. I'm not expecting to have to do less than four drafts of this story anyway as it has multiple point of view characters and has a main plot thread enhanced by a couple of decades worth of flashbacks. So it's going to need a huge amount of fine tuning to bring it all together and really make the most of the different time settings.

But the important part to me is to get the first draft out, so I have a better idea about what I have to work with. I passed 56k today, so on the downward slope of this part anyway!

I agree, @GhostImposter , it's easier to push stuff about after getting the first draft down. If I try to plan everything I'm advance I put down some really daft ideas that will never actually work.
Well done on persevering and making some progress

663 words today, finishing chapter 2. There's 2 strands in this story, present and past. Chapter 2 was in the past, I'm not entirely sure whether to continue in the past for a bit, or go back to the present.

I'll join. I've had a novel swimming around in my head for years but never had the time or quite the full will to get on with it. Suddenly this year it seems important to be doing it now and the energy has come from somewhere.
I'm hoping to get a full draft done by mid summer.

When I feel like that I just go with the bit that's really grabbing my imagination, inspiring me. You can always move it about later.