After a relaxing day off, I’m back in full force for the last half of NaNoWriMo. I’m keeping up with my goals, and I am still on track to complete the 50,000 word count goal by November 20th. Which is this coming Thursday for anyone else who feels the need to get unreasonably excited and nervous about that. Anyway, on to my update!
Today’s Word Count: 4,517
Total Word Count: 40,082
Estimated Writing Time: 2.5 hours
(I write a lot faster when my whole writing time is at home instead of split between home and work.)
Feeling: Accomplished
Motivation: Making up for my Day 15 break and hitting the 40,000 word mark.
Inspiration: Seeing other writers reaching the 50,000 word goal. If they can do it early, so can I!
Biggest Triumph: Hitting the 40,000 word mark. And, in awkward news, writing a very intimate love scene and only requiring one glass of wine to do it.
Biggest Setback: As mentioned above, I had a very particular kind of scene to write tonight, which was a different experience for me. It took me a while to figure out how to finesse my way through it, but I think I succeeded. We’ll see how my characters feel about it in the morning.
Helpful Insights: Think carefully about your readership, especially when writing graphic scenes. If your entire book has been devoid of any foul language or adult content, it will be very startling (and probably off-putting) to your reader if it suddenly pops up or goes across the line of propriety you’ve drawn for yourself. Likewise, if your book has been a bit raunchy, and you pull back and don’t write enough when certain scenes come along, your type of reader will probably be disappointed. No matter which side you’re on, it’s a delicate line, and you need to think carefully about your target audience before you draw it in the sand.
Join me on my NaNoWriMo journey on my NaNoWriMo page or follow me on Twitter @KateMColby for more frequent updates!
Kate M. Colby 
I am so glad to hear I’m not the only one who has trouble writing those intimate scenes, although I’m sure we’re not alone. I still remember the first one I ever wrote, on my lunch break years ago when I was still in a cubicle (I’ve since gotten an office). I kept looking over my shoulder to see if anyone was paying attention to what I was writing!
Congrats on hitting the 40K mark, very impressive! I’m going to have to surge ahead a little bit here over the next week because the last week of the month is going to be full of holiday church events in the evenings. Thankfully, I’m on vacation as well so cross your fingers I can crank it out.
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Haha I feel you about the cubicle writing. Our office has very open-concept cubicles, and mine opens right up to a main hallway, so I have to be careful. I was VERY glad that scene fell on a weekend, otherwise, I would have had to skip it and write it later lol.
And I’m sure that you’ll crank out a solid word count while you’re on vacation. You’ve been doing such a great job, and I’m sure balancing church events will be easier than balancing work stuff. At least, I hope!
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Romantic scenes can be amazingly difficult – to find that correct balance to fit into the genre that you’re writing! Congrats on getting over that hurdle! And 40,00! Nice – you’ll hit that 50,000 mark with ease! I hit the 30,000 mark this weekend and I’m psyched – it feels like it’s all downhill from here, I’ll just keep writing through and suddenly find that I’ve one. It’s not longer a struggle to keep writing! 🙂
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That’s fantastic! I’m so excited for you (and all of us, really)! You’re entirely right. It is all downhill from here, and before you know it, we’ll be typing that final piece of punctuation on our finished manuscripts!
And then probably revising and editing for months. But that’s December/January’s problem!
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I’ve been writing random scenes for NaNo – since I already had the first 20,000+ words for the novel when I started this month (that took me nine years to do). December is going to me pulling my hair out as I attempt to put all the scenes in logical order with smooth transitions. 😛
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Yikes! I’m a chronological writer, so that sounds absolutely torturous to me lol. Good luck!
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I don’t generally write like this – but I needed something to get me over the hump I was stuck at. This seems to be working to keep me writing and moving the story along. I probably will be kicking myself next month though, that’s for sure!
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