It’s National Novel Writing Month. According to the NaNoWriMo website, “National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000 word) novel by midnight, November 30.”

So what? National Novel Writing Month appears to be geared toward amateurs. Their focus is on quantity, not quality. Just get the words down on paper. What you do with them after that is up to you.

Except that my goal isn’t just to get words on paper. That part is easy. It’s getting the right words that’s difficult. Maybe that comes from my being a professional magazine editor in my real life. Maybe it comes from the fact that I don’t just want to write a novel. I want to write a good one. I want to have it published and be successful.

I spend far more time planning, editing and rewriting than I spend writing fresh material. To me, that feels like the better approach. I don’t have a problem coming up with ideas or ways to express them. It’s not about writer’s block. It’s about blocking out time to keep making progress.

Like NaNoWriMo, I use word count to track my progress. But they’re not just words. They’re the right words. Counting them just gives me a way to see my progress and stay motivated. Two months ago, I had 23,000 words and six chapters. Now I have 35,000 words and nine chapters.

I hope the good folks at NaNoWriMo will forgive me, but I’m not participating. They had more than 100,000 participants last year, with some 15% actually completing the 50,000 words.

I’m just going to keep doing what I do. My goal isn’t just to have a certain number of words and call it a novel. My goal is to write a cohesive, interesting epic fantasy page-turner. Whether it ends up at 50,000 words or 150,000 words doesn’t matter.

Fantasy Novelist’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 1
• Chapters complete: 9
• Word Count: 35,300

The world’s greatest fantasy novel writer is back on the job. No, not J.R.R. Tolkien, although that would be news, wouldn’t it. No, not Terry Brooks. Who then? George R.R. Martin? Nope, not him either. I mean me, of course. Last night I wrote for about two hours.

Ok, maybe “world’s greatest” is a bit of a stretch, but I am writing fantasy, after all, and half the fun is just making stuff up. The point is, I’m back in the writing habit. Exactly one day in a row. OK, maybe “habit” is a bit of a stretch, too, but I feel a lot better about making progress than the alternative.

I worked on a new scene last night, the last scene of Chapter 9. The main character is about to get himself into a whole new mess, and it should be interesting. But he’ll also meet a new ally, whom I’ve already introduced. Together they’ll be able to get out of the mess, but not in this chapter. All I have to do tonight is finish getting our hero into the trouble. Throw in some bad guys and the scariest fantasy monster you’ve ever come across, and we’re in business.

I should be able to finish at least the rough draft of Chapter 9 tonight, and then get a good head start on Chapter 10.

In the early stages of writing a novel, there’s a lot more planning than writing. I feel like I am getting to the point in the story where the planning has mostly been taken care of, and the action of the story begins to drive itself. I don’t have to think about what is going to happen next, because what happens next follows naturally from what happened previously. That makes the writing part a lot easier.

Let’s hope it continues.

(World’s Greatest!) Fantasy Writer’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 1
• Chapters complete: 8
• Word Count: 33,808

Ok, so it’s been about a month and a half since I wrote my last post. Not good, really, considering that this blog was supposed to help keep me on track with my writing habits.

Unfortunately, writing every day is a much harder habit to develop than not writing every day.

I haven’t been totally inactive since the last time I posted, but I haven’t written that much either. I am about two-thirds of the way through Chapter 9, which is about a chapter and a half further than I was late in August. I have somewhere around 33,000 words complete, and I hope to get through Chapter 9 tonight.

In the meantime, I finished reading the latest from Terry Brooks a few nights ago ( The Gypsy Morph, book 3 of the Genesis of Shannara series ). It was a good book, well written, with Terry Brooks’s usual style, and I consider my time spent reading his work as studying as much as reading for pleasure.

I admire Brooks for his pace and writing style, and if my writing can come anywhere close to that, then my “studying” time will have been well spent.

So, with inspiration anew, I’ll tackle the rest of Chapter 9 tonight. Wish me luck.

I’m still in the revising, rewriting and editing stage, but I’m close to moving on to the next scene. I’ve spent the last few nights revisiting old chapters and old scenes and my notes and chronology of events.

In the first version, I didn’t necessarily write the chapters in chronological order. But in order to avoid confusing the reader, I’m going to rearrange.

So, what used to be Chapters 7 and 8 are going to become 3 and 4. Not only does this help me keep the sequence of events in the proper order, but it also lets me stay with the first group of characters a little longer before switching to my second main story line.

Moving these chapters meant adding a day to one story line and starting the second one a little bit later, but the changes were minor, and the whole thing makes a little more sense that way. I don’t want the reader to have to figure out that I’ve just jumped back to yesterday, and I certainly don’t want to have to explain it. And time travel is just not possible in the universe I’ve created.

Working on Chapter 8 (now Chapter 3) last night, I reworked a lot of the first scene, resulting in a fair amount of new material, which is good. I’ll be moving on to new stuff over the weekend.

Although I’m nowhere near the initial goal of writing 1,000 words a day, I’ve been working pretty steadily. I think I’ve taken two days off over the past two weeks. And despite all my editing and revising, the word count keeps growing, too, which means I must be getting somewhere.

Fantasy Writer’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 7
• Chapters complete: 7
• Word Count: 28,206

I’ve spent the past few days going over past chapters and making revisions. Thus, I haven’t added a whole lot of new content over the past week (or at least, I haven’t begun a new chapter during that time).

On the other hand, I’ve made good progress connecting earlier chapters with later ones, filling in holes that allow me to move the story along.

I had to go back to Chapter 3 and create a scene from the main villain’s perspective. It allowed me to provide a little more necessary background and set up some of the events that take place in later chapters. It also allowed me to make this villain more realistic. He’s more complicated than the prototypical “bad guy,” and I needed to get that across.

I’ll probably go back to these scenes and revise again, but over the past two nights, I think I’ve got it in good enough shape to move on.

I also have to go back and add at least two scenes to Chapter 6. It was a fairly short chapter anyway, and I need some things to happen in order to set up Chapters 8-10.

This entire novel takes place over the span of only a few days, but a lot of things have to happen all at the same time. Getting everything synchronized so that it makes sense to the reader has been one of my biggest challenges. I also don’t want to jump around too much, because I’ll lose the readers if I do.

Fantasy Writer’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 4
• Chapters complete: 7
• Word Count: 27,282

Ok, so maybe 1,000 words a day wasn’t realistic on an every-day schedule. Over the past week, during which I’ve spent productive time writing every day, I’ve discovered that I need more editing and revising time than I previously thought.

I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing. Whenever I finish a rewrite session, I almost always feel as though I’ve strengthened the novel.

I’m at a point where certain of my characters are ready to move on, but some others aren’t quite there yet. So, I’m contemplating going back and adding a few scenes into the earlier chapters.

Last night I made some revisions to Ch. 3 to account for what was happening in Ch. 8. I’ve noticed a few other places where my earlier chapters could use a little something extra.

I’m hesitant to make any changes to my overall goals, though. When I am writing, 1,000 words a day doesn’t seem like too much to ask. But word-count isn’t the only measure of productivity. Sometimes, the best way to improve the writing is to strip away the fluff.

Besides, my word count is going up, too. A week ago, I only had about 23,000 words. Now I have 26,000. A week ago, I was only mid-way through Chapter 7. Now I’m mid-way through Chapter 8. 

So, I’m sticking to my goal. Maybe it is fantasy to think I can keep up with it. But making fantasy believable is what my job is all about.

Fantasy Writer’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 7
• Chapters complete: 7
• Word Count: 26,299

Nobody said writing the next great fantasy novel was going to be easy. I worked both Saturday and Sunday night over the weekend. I didn’t work for very long either night–probably about three hours combined, and I didn’t start a new chapter yet, but I still felt like I accomplished something.

I spent most of that time revising Chapter 7, and I think I’ve got it in good enough shape to move on now.

The main point is, I continue to have productive writing days. I don’t want to stop working, even for a day, because if I do, I know what will happen. One day off will turn into two, and two will turn into four. Before you know it, another three years will go by and I’ll still be working on Chapter 7.

But that’s not going to happen this time around. Every day, I’m determined to get closer to finishing this novel. Some days that will mean meeting my 1,000 word a day goal. Other days it will mean sharpening my editor’s pencil.

Last night, I spent a good half-hour planning out Chapters 8-10, so I should be ready to go for tonight.

Fantasy Writer’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 5
• Chapters complete: 7
• Word Count: 25,296

This will be just a short note today. Despite my procrastinating, there was fantasy novel writing at my house last night. I wrote last night for a little more than an hour. I got kind of a late start, so I didn’t write for as long as I would like, and I fell short of the goal. I wrote a little more than 800 words.

But I wrapped up Chapter 7, at least in rough-draft form. That’s definitely progress. As for not meeting my word-count goal, I’m not all that concerned. I will make it up somewhere else.

Besides, word count doesn’t really matter to me. It’s just a way to help me keep track of my progress, to give myself a way to say whether I’ve had a productive writing day. I imagine I might spend some days just revising and editing.

On account of my late start, I didn’t do any revising last night. I wanted to focus on getting some new stuff on paper. Finishing Chapter 7 was more important. But tonight, I’ll probably spend a good deal of time editing and revising. I’ll review all of Chapter 7 and strengthen whatever I can. I also think I need to take a good look at my notes and make sure the next few chapters are on solid ground. I’d also like to take a look at the order of the chapters. I have several groups of characters heading in different directions, and I don’t want to be switching back and forth too often. But I also need to keep the story moving along without backtracking.

Fantasy Writer’s Progress Report:

• Consecutive days of productive writing: 3
• Chapters complete: 7
• Word Count: 25,128

I wrote for about two hours last night. That’s two productive days in a row. 

I spent about half of my time revising what I wrote yesterday, and the remaining time adding a new scene–about 1,000 words. I’m about two-thirds of the way through Chapter 7, with one major scene left to go.

Usually, I start by revising the previous day’s work–improving word choices, smoothing out the flow and double-checking to make sure everything makes sense in the grand scheme of the story. Occasionally, I’ll go back a chapter or two to check facts or see how I ended a previous scene.

I also keep a running set of notes, including an outline of the major plot points and significant character developments in each chapter. I revise these notes after each chapter.

A thousand words doesn’t seem like much, but if I could write that much every night, I’d finish this novel in months rather than years.

I kind of like the sound of that.

So that’s my first goal: 1,000 words a day. My chapters average around 3,500 words each, so if I can keep to the goal of 1,000 words a day, that’s about two chapters a week.

With 138 days before the end of the year–a little more than 19 weeks–that should be more than enough time to get it done, even if I take a day off here and there. According to my notes, this novel should take about 35 chapters. I can do that.

So there’s my second goal: finish my book by the end of the year. Next year’s goal can be to get it published.

Fantasy Novelist’s Progress Report:

• Chapters complete: 6
• Word count: 24,000
• Consecutive productive writing days: 2

I’ve been writing my first novel, off-again and on-again (mostly off-again), for several years now. I say mostly off-again, because, unfortunately, all I have to show for that time are six and a half chapters and a file full of notes.

They’re really good chapters, though. At least I think so. I’ve developed interesting characters: heroes, villains and a few whose final roles have yet to be revealed. I’m especially proud of the way I’ve built suspense, tension and drama leading up to the action sequences.

I’m also proud of my writing style. Strong verbs, strong nouns, solid word choice. A distinct point of view for each character.

But 25,000 words doesn’t make a fantasy novel, does it? 

So I’m back at it again. Hopefully for good, this time. I wrote for a couple of hours last night, and it felt pretty good. Whenever I pick it up again, I wonder why I ever stopped working on it in the first place.

This time, I’m going to stick to it.

I’m writing this blog to give myself a place to track my own progress. I hope that if I spend 10 minutes a day thinking about my efforts, I’ll stay more focused, and seven chapters will turn into eight, then nine, and so on.

I’ll be a novelist yet.