Unconventional NaNoWriMo week 1

Overall, it's been a great week, but very tiring. In this post, I'll show you my diary of work during week 1.

In total, I worked on my writing goals for 19.25 hours (87.5% of my goal of 22 hours--not bad!). I successfully published my entry in the Unreliable Narrator challenge and made progress on other goals related to my writing business. Keep reading for the details :).

(For anyone who missed it, here is the post where I explain my plans for this November (and if you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, I also explain that in here!):

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November 1

The month got off to a great start! I actually spent five hours working on my writing objectives (the goal was four hours per day on weekdays).

First, I worked on setting up my email newsletter. This is going to take much longer than I had planned, because it's significantly more complex than I anticipated... Also, I learned that I have to set up a PO box. (Apparently you legally need to list a mailing address in advertising emails (in the U.S.), and it wouldn't be safe to publicize my home address, so a PO box it is.)

I also worked on the design of my bookmark "business cards."

November 2

I finalized the front design of my bookmarks! I only worked on this for one hour today, but since I did accomplish this (my #1 objective for the day), I am still happy about it.

November 3

Today I pondered what to write for the Unreliable Narrator Challenge (The deadline to enter has passed, but you can still read the entries in the comments if you are interested). I read about perjury, I read a bunch of examples of unreliable narrators, I read advice about writing unreliable narrators (Sadly, I did not find anything super helpful), and I continued pondering (Total: 3.5 hours). However, I was not able to actually figure out a good idea...(yet!)

November 4

More planning..... and I finally came up with a workable unreliable narrator idea! (This was Saturday, so my writing goal was only 1 hour, and I ended up doing 1.75 hours.)

November 5

Researching hostage statements, pondering what a good twist would be... 1.75 hours total

November 6

I finally finished my Unreliable Narrator Challenge entry!! You can read it here:

I did so much thinking, and so much research on the logistics of collecting ransoms, and in the end I was quite rushed to finish the story on time. I was so tired... but really happy that I got the story done and submitted! (I spent 4 hours writing today.)

November 7

Opened my PO box. Tired. I worked on planning books to read/study for my writing, because that's what I felt like doing. (Side note, let me know if you'd like to see a post about the fiction and nonfiction books I have read (and plan to read) to study novel writing, and/or a post about my whole reading journal system. It is rather elaborate lol.)

Up Next

Tonight, I am going to relax and do a jigsaw puzzle, because....tired. I'm sure I'll feel more rejuvenated tomorrow after that break. Over the next week, my goals are to finish setting up my email newsletter, finish designing (and order) my bookmark "business cards," hopefully post 2 more Vocal posts, and then of course post my week 2 update. See you again soon! :)

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Thank you for reading! Are you doing NaNoWriMo, or any other writing challenges this month? And/or are you also tired? We can commiserate in the comments below, haha ^_^