NaNoWrimo Day Two - Catching The Wind In My Sails

Day two went better than day one, partially since I did have the whole day to work on the novel (and again at night as well) as opposed to pretty much only at night.

The plot is progressing fairly well, considering none of this was plotted, but I felt we needed some views of Valerie before the accident so that we would have more of an emotional attachment to her post accident. I'm also finding that this time is allowing me to foreshadow a bit of what happens after. It's all falling into place, so I'm allowing it. :P At the moment Valerie is being a typical teen (sort of) and on her way to get her prom dress and shop for a dress with her friend. While I wanted to just jump to the prom and then to the accident for the big opening 'hook,' I decided against it. I'm still not sure which I like better, but I do like the foreshadowing and character work that's going on now. I figure by chapter four or so the fateful accident will occur.

Day two also brought a reply from that woman I met on the SCI group. She replied in great detail about her son's rehab (which continues to this day eight years post accident.) She gave me a lot to work with and a glimpse of what it's like for the victim and the family of them post accident. It was, however, emotional to read all of it. It was like I somehow related through my research and through the character what I was reading. I guess that's a good thing as the emotion should come through when it comes time to write those sections.

I also got a link to a rehab site that was incredibly helpful and that had a video of her son working out for his rehab sessions. All of this is going to be of great help for the realism of the novel, and I thank my lucky stars that I found them.

I will say that my emotional aspect of this novel is spot on, and it will have a very dark midsection. Hopefully it won't drag me down as I tend to put off those types of scenes, and there's going to be many of them here. It is those scenes that I hope will resonate with the readers and show Valerie's emotions much more vividly than ever before. Time will tell if that's exactly what happens.

All in all day two brought me a nice boost in words and even a bit ahead of the game. By bedtime (nearly 12am local time) I had 3,735 words in my novel. The bare minimum (to finish precisely in 30 days) was 3,334 words.