Progress: 52,034 words, Five Chapters (All first or second draft)

I have written 36 scenes, and until a few days ago I had no idea what percentage that translated to of the whole. My word count was always a guess, and without knowing how many total scenes I would have, I could only speculate at my accomplishments.

However, due to the necessity of finally planning out my act two and act three scenes, I know what I have left to write.

I have 33 scenes left to complete my novel.

As I got deeper into act two I had no idea which direction my characters were headed. Literally, I did not know where they were going. I didn’t know what city in which to station my villain. I didn’t know where Nathaniel would go after he met with the villain. Where would I put Charlotte? What path would Amity take to get to her?

Without that information I couldn’t move forward, so I put my brain on overdrive and figured it all out. I have 33 scenes with some bullet points of action that will lead to each subsequent scene, and every bread crumb finally takes all my people to the end. They get a nice tour of northern America while they’re at it. The hardest part was matching movement and timelines so real historical events could happen when they did.

A book taking place during a war, I obviously want to feature some battles. Readers would expect it, and I don’t want to hear complaints about a war novel with no war. But how do I do that when my characters would actively avoid war? They are not soldiers. If they run to the explosions, they will likely explode.

Like my naval battle, some characters are forced to be present to watch the violence unfold, though they have no active participation. The mother may be more involved in the final battle with the natives but I am not sure how much to show there yet. Overall, we get three battles and some struggles not related to the war. This should satisfy everyone’s blood lust, but I’ll give that some more thought after the first draft is through.

I am chatting a bit with my cabin mates in CampNaNo, and it’s nice to have some other writers to make me accountable. I would like all of us to reach our goals this month and according to the stats on the site I should be fine. I’m worried about some of the folks who still have a goose egg of a word count, but maybe they are just too busy writing to update their numbers. Come on guys!

Do you have a novel in the works? Are you participating in CampNaNo? I’d love to connect with you or hear about your story.

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Thanks for reading.