Discussion Time: NaNoWriMo Update and Introducing my Characters

So, as I mentioned last week, instead of doing normal discussion posts this month I’m going to talk about my NaNoWriMo progress and my current WIP.

If you’re not aware NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s only once a year (if you’re anything like me and don’t take part in the Camp NaNo events in April and July) but the goal is to write 50K words in one month. It’s insane, 50K is more than I’ve wrote this whole year in the other ten months combined, but now I’m trying to do it in one month.

Slowly the end of November is creeping up on us all. I shouldn’t be surprised by how quickly this month has gone based on how quickly this year and every other month has gone, but I’m still freaking out a little because of how far I’ve fallen behind!

NaNoWriMo Update and Introducing my Characters

I said in my post I published one week ago I was hoping to catch up on my word count that same day, you can probably tell that didn’t happen, but no worries (I told myself) I can pull it back throughout the rest of the week and get above the target.

Again, didn’t happen.

I was in kind of a bad place last week. I was dealing with some mental health issues that were low-key compared to I’ve dealt with in the past but that still left me feeling tired and ill and so unmotivated to do anything at all related writing, or related to anything that wasn’t work (simply because I have to go to work) and sleep.

To no one’s surprise I fell even further behind.

Still the end of the week was better. Friday I managed to write over 3K words, which may not be a lot to some people but this year it’s the most I’ve ever written in one day before, and yesterday I wrote over 2K, which wasn’t as high as Friday’s number but considering I had a surprise party to head to in the evening which lasted until midnight I think that’s pretty good going.

My goal is still to end the month having written 50K; I think I can do it if I pull out all the stops and try to keep having good writing days like I did Friday and yesterday. According to the stats for my WIP on NaNoWriMo if I want to finish my novel (or finish the 50K I set out to write at the beginning of the month) by November 30th I need to write just over 2K per day, which is possible though it will be challenging given next week I’m going on holiday for the last weekend of November.

Still, keep your fingers crossed for me.

So far today I’ve written just over 700 words, I’m hoping to get to over 2K before the day is over.

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Last week in my NaNoWriMo update post I introduced my WIP, so this week I’m going to introduce two of my characters. Maybe most people would have gone with the main characters, or even the characters they’d wrote the most words about, but I’m going with the two antiheroes, one of whom I’ve literally only just introduced (he’s had one short scene so far).

Zeva

Zeva is currently my favourite character to write. She’s the daughter of the God/dess of Love and War, and she was lucky enough to escape the massacre that killed Aria and so many other demigods thanks to Aria. Since then Zeva has done whatever she has needed to to survive, she feels no loyalty towards her fellow demigods the only people she is loyal to are her father and younger sister.

Despite owing Aria her life Zeva still betrays her to her father for the change to secure more power for herself and safety for her family. Of course it all goes horribly wrong (I’m a very cruel writer and the amount of heartache I put my characters through is intense; there are no happy people in this story). Zeva’s journey is very separate to Aria’s, but the things she does affect Aria and vice versa.

Solon

Solon has only just been introduced, and already I plan on making him edge more to the villain side than the hero side of the antihero scale (it means I have a lot of work to do to try and redeem him later on). Ten years ago Solon had a choice to make; loyalty to someone he loved or loyalty to his people. He chose his people but the repercussions for the someone he loved were heavy ones.

He’s more of a shadow looming over the other characters at the very beginning. He’s not the main antagonist, but for one of my main character’s he’s the only antagonist there is. Solon is dedicated to a fault, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to protect his people and he tries, he just isn’t very good at balancing the negative effects on the people he can’t protect.

As it stands I’ve introduced all the major players in my WIP but I’m still writing the beginning; where the scenes are set, the characters are introduced to one another, enemies and allies are formed, and their journeys are just getting started. I still have a few minor characters to introduce but they don’t come into play until the middle/end of this story so I won’t be seeing them for a while (which is almost a shame, because another of my favourite characters only appears at the end of my WIP).

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Now Onto the Discussion Part of This Post:

Are you taking part in NaNo this year, how has November so far gone for you?

Are you ahead of the standard daily targets set to reach 50K by the end of the month, or have you fallen behind a little like I have? If so do you have a plan to catch up?

Who is your favourite character to write and have they been introduced in your WIP yet? Do you have any antiheroes or is yours a story with just heroes and villains, no morally grey characters needed?

Let me know in the comments below.