NaNoWriMo Writing Journal 2018

Witches at the White House

Day 18: 1,828 words

Thankfully, this is a Sunday with only at-home plans! I was able to write from 9-12 and get my words in. I’m just barely ahead of target, not by much. I would like to get even more words into that cushion because this is a holiday week.

Day 19: 1,861 words

It was horrible night of “sleep” again. The dreams/nightmares wouldn’t stop so I took a whole pill at 3am and said Fuck It. I knew I’d pay the price. Getting up at 7am was hard. My entire body hurt when I got out of bed. Writing felt impossible when I started it around 9am. I had reached exactly 1,667 at the end of a sentence so decided that was a good time to break and take Gus outside.

We spent a little over an hour outside. It took him 40 minutes to work his way over to the birdwatching tree. It was slushy and muddy. Lots of little bird activity.

I ate lunch, started more laundry, and got a couple hundred more words in just in case my Wednesday schedule doesn’t allot me any time to write. At the moment, my Wednesday plans are hectic and I don’t know how my energy will be.

By this point in the story, I feel like I’m on a government watch list because I keep searching for the floor plans of the White House.

WHCA — a sidebar:

Speaking of the White House, they named Ron Chernow to host the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner rather than a comedian with a beat on irony and satire. I don’t know Chernow’s body of work, to be honest. He just looks like an old white male novelist. I certainly would have come up with other ideas of novelists and columnists who could have made it memorable: Chuck Wendig, Lindy West, Jemele Hill, Feminista Jones, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Terry Crews, or Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

“Don’t trust anyone who promises you a new life. Pick-up artists, lifestyle gurus, pyramid-scheme face cream evangelists, Weight Watchers coaches: These people make their living off of your failures.”
― Lindy West, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

Day 20: 1,831 words

Today was another struggle. I tried to get done what I could before leaving for aerial yoga. Last night, I put on a meditation for “deep sleep” and left my earbuds in with it playing. I fell asleep around 9:30 or 10, but woke up at midnight. I took out the earbuds and tried to go back to sleep. I was awake until 3. Oh, plus visited by Gus at 1am who jumped around at my face and on my nightstand because he was hungry. I was wide awake so I gave him some treats. Then I must have gotten a little more sleep from 3-6:30. I wasn’t in pain getting out of bed today but I was every bit as tired as the rest of the month.

Today’s progress was slow. So very ungoldly slow. But I’m done by 4pm. That’s kind of a miracle. The lovely little Scrivener bar graph is now chartreuse in color getting closer to green.

Day 21: 1,381 words

Considering that I thought I was going to have 0 words, I’m so thrilled I got anything done today. I had a hectic schedule including driving through shitty NJ traffic + anxiety. Woooo fun.

My protag is finding out what kind of man her father really is. (*dun dun DUUNNNNNNN*)

Oh my gods, I’m so tired. Last night I even slept “better” in that all my weird dreams weren’t horrifying nightmares.

Day 23: 2,208 words

At first I felt like my day was all out of whack because I didn’t get to writing as soon as possible in the morning. I went to yoga at 9:30; came home and took Gus out from 11:25-12:05 (yes, it was so cold I was staring at the clock to see how long I could endure). Showered. And then got around writing.

It’s 3:47PM and the sun is already so low that I need lamps on around the bedroom. I hate long darkness. As much as my skin hates the sun, I love seeing the sun. I need daylight!

I will say that the full moon, the Beaver Moon, was stunning though. When it was low in the sky and I could see it through the trees last night, it went from orange to pale yellow; then as it rose changed to white. Always beautiful.

Day 24: 1,830 words

I had a short writing session before yoga; then a longer one later in the afternoon. By afternoon I really just wanted to take a nap, but I didn’t. I knew the universe had presented me an opportunity to write so as long as I had the ability to sit upright at my desk, I wanted to make an effort.

PS – I got to teach Yin yoga again today and it was a lot of fun for me. I hope everyone else got to show their bodies and minds some self-compassion.

PPS – This morning Bear Roots paperback finally became available!!

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Day 25: 1,473 words

I broke through 43k words today. I was fortunate that the weather was so beautiful today (my favorite: sunny with 50ºF). We sat around having coffee. Ran to the yoga studio to pick up more laundry. Came home and walked the cats. Gus and I stood outside by the maple tree for most of the hour. He chased a squirrel and some birds, but none were captured. Continued the laundry and ate lunch. Started writing and it went smoothly (at least for 1,400 words then I paused to poke around the internet).

In today’s scenes, I got to go back to one of my favorite witch authors for reference, Valerie Worth. Her books of charms and spells are old. I have both in paperback. Basically the one is an update of the other with more information. I used her talisman inscription To Be Safe from All Harm as inspiration for a cloaking spell two of my witch characters needed.

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The great thing about this year was that I stayed steady with averaging 1700 words a day. That allowed me one day off; and for the last week, I won’t be in a state of panic trying to make up words. I need 1,116 each day to reach exactly 50k by Friday. Hopefully I’ll keep up a more productive pace because I will need to return to weekly Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency posts.

See Week 1.5

See Week 2

See Week 4

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.