Team KoBoWriMo: Week One

We’re 6 days into NaNoWriMo 2015. How is our team of brave WriMos doing so far? Well… let’s just say most of us (already!) have some catching up to do. Here’s a quick update:

 

Sophia – CRM Coordinator and new team member! This last-minute addition jumped onboard on Monday morning, and is writing about the annual animal migration from Tanzania to Kenya (“not a children’s book, as I get asked that often”). Sophia’s struggle this week has been turning off her inner editor: “I realized I would never get anywhere if I kept looking in the rear view mirror, u-turning over and over again. My goal is to keep pushing forward and keep the story going.”

 

Sean – This week he has focused on building the story outline, and various day-to-day responsibilities (sick dog, working late, broken dishwasher) have all conspired against him. “I’m hoping that this weekend I’ll be able to sit down and write more seriously.”

 

Mark – Our resident NaNo Pro is at it again, the only one of us on track at this point hitting his daily word count. Not only that, but he’s overcome an obstacle: “I’m a die-hard ‘pantser’ and had the basic gist of an idea that I was going to write about… It wasn’t until I was at about 5000 words where, after fleshing out some characters and fleshing out some of the finer details I found a series of story beats that I knew I’d have to write. And in that planning session I was able to properly chunk out some major elements of the overall structure of the novel that hadn’t been there before.”

 

Chrissy – She’s written something every day, but hasn’t hit 1,667 words in one day yet. The biggest challenge has been writing quickly enough in the free time available for writing to hit the daily word counts. “I feel like I have the pedal to the metal and I’m still only getting out 900 words a day on a good day.”

 

Wendy – Much like the rest of us, things are moving slowly for Wendy. She struggled most with the opening. “I think I’ve finally nailed it, but I’m struggling with explaining things without sounding like an encyclopedia. The challenge in fantasy is that you have so much to explain about your world, but don’t want to make it boring. My world’s exciting, I promise!”

 

Bessie – “Well I’m far behind the pace to reach 50k but I decided to set myself a more realistic goal of writing something every day. I think it’s a good habit to get into, and so far I’ve written all 4 days – including last night where I scrambled at the last minute, in bed, on my phone to write a few paragraphs before midnight!”

 
 

Denar – Currently working on Chapter 2. “I think I am thinking too much plotting and not really writing much on my novel. As everyone keeps telling me, I should just keep on writing.”

 
 
 

So, fellow WriMos – how was your first week? Any tips for overcoming these obstacles that have worked for you so far? We need all the help we can get! Happy writing, everyone.