Know The Novel Part 2: Within Project Monday

So! It's NaNoWriMo! And I'm dying! Haha! Just kidding! I'm fine! Everything is fine! 
Indeed. To tell the truth, NaNo is actually going quite well, and so am I, it's just that some days feel more like that than others. So, today I am bringing you a post written on one of the days where I more-or-less felt like everything was going well. I'm incredibly excited to participate in Christine Smith's Know the Novel linkup for the very first time!! I chose not to participate in the first bit of this particular linkup because it involved my arch-nemesis, details, but the second part, with its questions mostly able to be answered in the particular vague way that I answer all questions pertaining to my WIPs, looked like fun!
So here we are.

(Note: all the pictures in this post (besides the banner, obvs) were taken during writing sessions (mostly) in various locations around campus. I thought they were fun. :))

1. How’s the writing going overall?
Overall, it's going well! I for some reason have been able to just pound out the words! This story wants to be told, I guess? And I have the means to tell it? I hit 30k on the 9th (not gonna lie, I am SHOCKED by this). At this point, I know that the story is DEFINITELY going to be more than 50k, so I'm hoping that maybe, juuuust maybe, I can get through to the end by the end of the month. I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't, but that's my hope. :) I mean, I have two multi-hour plane flights planned, and what are plane flights for if not writing (and reading)?

I will say, it is getting a little less...consistently thought out...as I go, and by that, I just mean that there's a bit less sensory detail, a little less thought put into what the narrator reveals or doesn't, and a little less dialogue consistency. But you know what, that's what the 2nd draft is for. 

2. What’s been the most fun aspect about writing this novel so far?
The amount that I get excited to write! There's been at least once where I knew what was going to happen next (an insight during Mass, actually...), and ended up staying up a bit late to get all of that written down before it left my mind! Pounding out words like I'm running out of time (because I was...I needed to go to bed!) is a sensation that I'm not used to, and I enjoyed it.

Also, I think I'm engaging more with the NaNo community this year, especially through DMs on the NaNo site, so that's been really fun. And, as I mentioned, Legolas is doing it this year, too, and we've only word wars-ed once so far, but we have been cheering each other on!

And lastly, this project originally started out with the germ of an idea and a list of all my favorite tropes, many of which I'm trying to incorporate, so getting to spend a lot of time with some of my favorite fictional conditions has been great!

3. What do you think of your characters at this point? Who’s your favorite to write about?
There are more of them than I thought, haha. I have a bajillion secondary characters, and I keep forgetting about some of them! I have a vivid-ish image of each of them in my head, but that's not really getting translated at this point.

My MC has been a bit of a surprise...she's very intellectual and gentle in many ways, but she can also be remarkably ruthless, and good at keeping secrets, which is a bit weird. I often find that my MCs, especially when I'm writing in the first person, are very much reflections of parts of me, so I find it funny that this particular MC has a few parts that I don't always see very often, as well as some that I do. She definitely talks less than me, that I will say.

Her mentor, her spiritual father, if you will, is one of my favorite characters to write, for sure (my MC might be my favorite? not positive), but he can be a bit of an issue because he's based on someone I know in real life, and that has made seeing that person in real life a little weird. XD

There's one other significant character who is being VERY taciturn and keeping to herself...I'm having a very hard time getting inside her head, which is certainly interesting, if frustrating.

Oh well. At least, I know all their names. *glares at the MC of Project Megan's Godchild*

4.  Has your novel surprised you in any way?
Since I'm pantsing...yes.
All the yes. *thinks about specific events and chortles*
Especially since I had no idea what would come after the inciting incident, except for one plot point that I still haven't gotten to yet.
Even though I'm fairly far past the inciting incident, I still don't really know what's going to happen  except for the one plot point, which is fun. I do have a vague idea of what else is going to happen, and it's far more mean to my characters (and myself) than I ever would have expected. So that'll be lovely.
What, you thought I was going to give you details? Ha, so funny! Of course not!

5. Have you come across any problem areas?
There are certainly a few! My pacing is going to need to be spruced up a bit in draft 2, as well as the afore-mentioned large cast issues and lack of consistency/thought. But mainly, I think I'm slightly low on theme at this very moment. Which a little concerning, but not really, because while my stories often come with a theme, they don't always, and I have a feeling that the theme for this one is going to take a little while to tease out. 

6. What’s been your biggest victory with writing this novel at this point?
Getting what I saw in my head onto the page! And keeping the action going, so I don't have any (or many, at least) draggy bits in the middle where I'm bored. I think the lack of boredom is definitely one of the things that's been making it easy to get so much work done so quickly!

7. If you were transported into your novel and became any one of the characters, which one do you think you’d be? Would you take any different actions than they have?
Hmmm. Well, given that I've already said that I am similar to my MC in many ways, it's possible I'd be her, but I might also be one of the other characters in the large cast (maybe BJM, whose initials I am giving only, to avoid spoilers, who is very intellectual and desirous of the answers to complicated philosophy questions. Or perhaps BTD, who is basically the responsible older brother of the whole group.) (And yes, I said 'group', because yes, there might be a leetle bit of a found family. :) Does this make me happy? Yes indeed.)

But as to what I'd do differently...I think I might take more initiative than any of them? I definitely have an aggressive side to me that I have not given to...any...of my characters. For instance, BTD has to try to wake up BCG at one point, and he's really hesitant about doing it...and I might have just gone and banged on his door. But idk...maybe not.

8. Give us the first sentence or paragraph and then 2 (or 3!) more favorite snippets!
I am known to be notoriously stingy with any sort of details (obviously) buuuut since this is part of the prompt, you will get three tiny out-of-context snippets. :)

First sentence: As happens most days, I wake up to the sound of a light double tap on my door.

Two more snippets:

They're my family. It will never not be devastating.

"Who are you calling young man? I'm approximately eight years older than you."
"As long as I have better table manners than you, I'll keep calling you young man."

9. Share an interesting tidbit about the writing process so far! (For example: Have you made any hilarious typos? Derailed from your outline? Killed off a character? Changed projects entirely? Anything you want to share!)
Definitely some hilarious typos so far! At one point, I was trying to say that a character said something quietly, and instead typed 'silently'. Silent communication = not yet possible.

 Another time, I was trying VERY hard to spell 'repeat' with another e at the end, i.e. 'repete/repeate/reapete/reapeate' and it took me a while to figure out what was wrong. 

As for the other questions, I never had an outline, and haven't changed projects! Which is good, because I WUV this one.

But as for killing characters, I plead the fifth. (And I also plead the fifth on whether I have any character deaths planned, down the line.)

10. Take us on a tour of a what a normal writing day for this novel has looked like. Where do you write? What time of day? Alone or with others? Is a lot of coffee (or some other drink) consumed? Do you light candles? Play music? Get distracted by social media (*cough, cough*)? Tell all!
The 'normal writing day' for this project has looked really different almost every day! It mostly looks like me grabbing random time (that I both can and can't spare) between classes and meetings and homework. Some mornings, I can get up early enough to write before homework at like 7 AM, and some mornings at that time I need to be getting my morning routine done so I can get to work at 7:45. Some days, I am able to nab the time between my 1 o'clock and 3 o'clock class MWF to write, and other days I take that time instead to have ridiculous conversations with my Newman family and recharge. Some days I do laundry and write. Some days, to be honest, I write in class (but only if I either know what's going on or the prof is going slow enough that I can take notes, too). The nabbed-writing-time writing takes place all over, as my photos in this post testify--the Agricultural Engineering building, the ice cream place, the laundry room, the library, the Newman caf...

On Saturdays and Sundays, when I have uninterrupted writing time, or if I'm writing before bed on a weekday, I write on my bed, legs perpendicular to the length, back against the wall. I think I've quite possibly spent more time on my bed when I'm not sleeping in the past ten-ish days than the rest of the semester combined.  

There's almost always my NaNo Playlist playing through my earbuds, and sometimes there's a mug of tea next to me (but not any coffee yet), but there's no candles because those are not allowed in Newman, tragically. (And yes, sometimes I get distracted by social media...mostly blogs and Goodreads.)

So, how are you doing? Have you ever written in class? If you're doing NaNo, please tell me how that's going! And if not, how's your November so far? :)