Brandon Ketchum

After a massive push yesterday, where I went insane banging out many words, I have today claimed victory with my NaNoWriMo project, “Three’s a Crown”. Granted, I exceeded the 50,000 word mark yesterday, but didn’t finish until just a short time ago. My goal from the get-go was a 55,000 word first draft by the end of the month. The official word count comes out to 53,984, a mere 1,116 words shy of my mark, in only three weeks. I’d like to think it’s a fabulously fun yarn too.

Fair play to Jennifer Brozek, who finished before I did. It doesn’t bother me, because she’s one heck of an established professional in the field. Plus, NaNoWriMo isn’t a race or a competition. It does feel good to be in the same company as a Jennifer Brozek, though.

I’m so pleased I decided to take on this project. It was the perfect story at the perfect moment for me. I’d like to thank Eric Jackson for urging me to give NaNoWriMo a try. Good luck to the rest of my NaNoWriMo brethren in their quest to finish!

An outline is a must in my writing process. I’ll make a detailed outline before I write a short story. With a novel, I’ll dive into world building and structure the majority of what I need for my world ahead of time. I outline for novels too, but in a different way than for short stories. I find it impossible to complete an entire, chapter-by-chapter outline for a novel ahead of time, although I do work with a skeleton outline, a rough guide of where I’m going. Instead I’ll script the first handful of chapters very thoroughly, as far ahead as I feel comfortable. Once I’m finished with those chapters, or a good ways through them, I’ll outline a little more. I kind of leapfrog my outline forward like that as I go.

So I’ve been slowed in my word count by constantly having to update my outline as I progressed through my NaNoWriMo project. The good news I have to report now, however, is that I have finished…my outline! I know exactly what I’m going to write to finish Three’s a Crown, if not the exact words. NaNoWriMo, I have your number!

So I have returned from a fantastic weekend of geeking out over board games. I started a bit slow today, but am now right back in my writing groove. Three’s a Crown, my romping fantasy adventure tale, is growing in word count once more. NaNoWriMo, I own you (so far).

While I approached my NaNoWriMo journey with much trepidation–I’m a slow and steady kind of writer–the words are flowing and the energy’s buzzing in my finger tips. I’m already over 30,000 words, ahead of my weekly goals, and champing at the bit to bang out more. Sadly, a super-fun weekend at a gaming con here in the ‘Burgh will keep me away from Three’s a Crown from now through the weekend. That’s okay, though–I’ll be that much more raring to go come Monday.

Writers, keep on writing!

Oh, very well, the first week of NaNoWriMo isn’t finished yet, but I wanted to share how much I’ve accomplished already. I’ve topped the fourteen thousand word mark, and will surpass fifteen thousand words for the week. This will put me beyond my goals for the week, and hopefully help me pad my word count against future weeks. I’ve just finished chapter fourteen. As anticipated, chapters are short and sweet in this novel of mine. It’s witty with fun characters, an interesting plot, and thus far, excellent character development. All of this is in my humble opinion as a writer working on a first draft, of course, but right now my voice counts the most 🙂

More updates to follow.

So, not a bad start to my November project. A perfect title came to me–Three’s a Crown. A friend and I and his girlfriend went to a NaNoWriMo write-in at the library, and I churned out a chapter late tonight. All told, I’ve put down over 4,200 words in about four hours of writing. A good first day in what promises to be a hectic month of writing. I’m excited for it.