Daily short updates during NaNoWriMo 2024
Day 5
Word Count: 800* (Total: 4,000)
I might base the middle of Book 3 on a similar narrative structure to Book 1: a treasure hunt across seven locations, with shifting goals and motivations. This structure worked well before because it’s fun and easy to turn expectations on their head and surprise the reader throughout the journey.
For locations, I might return to some favourites from Books 1 and 2—Lakeside, The Ice, The Stacks, The Chamber in the Wall—and finally reveal the Half House in all its glory. Though knowing how drafts go, this could all change tomorrow.
*) Very tired today. I kept an eye on the word counter and just kept typing until it hit 800. But here’s the thing about keeping your fingers moving across the keyboard—magic might happen. Or you feed the wastepaper basket. What matters is: something is happening.
#NaNoRebel2024 #AmWriting #WritingLife #WritersLife #FirstDraft #CreativeProcess
Day 4
Word count: 800* (Total 3200)
Today’s sprint focused on where I want each character to be emotionally and physically at the end of Book 3. The good news? I now have a rough idea about the beginning and the end of Book 3.
Today’s lesson learned: The Scrivener files for Book 2 are a mess. Not the manuscripts themselves, but the different versions I abandoned after large developmental changes. It took forever to find the file with the reverse outlines and character arcs I wrote when I got stuck earlier this year. Mental note: Tomorrow, I’ll declutter my digital files—or at least one folder.
Something else I’ve discovered (and that’s th big one): I have never really understood the power of loose outlines before, and I am loving the process. It feels like I’m having a conversation with myself about the book. I’m not restricting myself in any shape or form—I can jump between character arcs, plot beats, and even add short snippets of dialogue if they come to mind. The only restriction is not actually writing any scenes. If that temptation strikes, the revisions for Book 2 are only a file away.
That’s it for today—happy writing!
*) I always seem to run out of steam around the 800-word mark.
Day 3
Word count: 800 (Total 2,400)
As the outline for Book 3 grows, I have started to make several smaller changes to Book 2 based on what I now know about the start of Book 3.
One of the many painful lessons I learnt over the last 3 years is this: when you write a series, you must write an outline from beginning to end before you start the final revisions of the first book.
It is so obvious in hindsight, yet it’s easy to get lost in the impossibility of ever finishing one book. Facing the fact that you have to do this again—and again, as many times as your series has parts—is more than daunting.
The actual events in your series can change up to the time you type “The End” on the final page of the final book, but you need more than a vague idea about where the whole thing is going. And there’s nothing like trying to write an outline to show you just how vague those ideas really are.
How is your NaNo project going? Any revelations so far? Let me know on Instagram @FreitagBooks or Bluesky @MinuFreitag!
Day 2
Word count: 800 words (1,600 total)
With the revisions for The House, Book 2 in The Spheres Series going on at the same time, I can dedicate about an hour a day to the NaNo challenge—if I’m lucky. At my current pace—in a rough outline mode—this translates to roughly 800 words per session.
I am not fussed about making the 50k word count anyway. I’m using the challenge more as a motivational tool to start work on Book 3, and I can already see how helpful the outline for Book 3 will be for the final revisions of Book 2.
So yay, I guess.
How is your NaNo project going? Let me know on Instagram @FreitagBooks or Bluesky @MinuFreitag!
Day 1
Word count: 800
A nagging feeling had been haunting me the whole week. I knew I had forgotten something—something big… . Like taking part in NaNoRebel 2024 to write the outline for The Spheres Book 3.
So this might be possibly the worst first day in the history of Nano participation, but who cares?
I turn to my laptop, open a new document. A blank page awaits me—white, innocent, and full of potential—and I start to type:
The Spheres, Book 3…
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Other news
The first locally printed New Zealand edition of The Fragments is be available on my website. It looks amazing … if I say so myself.
New here? I am New Zealand-based writer, artist and maker Minu Freitag. I have published my first book—The Fragments, an inventive mix of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Dystopian fiction—in 2022 and am currently working on the second book in The Spheres Series—The House—due for release in the first half of 2024.
