Excerpt From the Book I'm writing (NaNoWriMo)

Hey, y'all! I decided that I would take a break from my usual series to give you a taste of what I have been doing this week. I am taking part in National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo. If you do not know what NaNoWriMo is, it is basically a writing challenge in the month of November. The objective is to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. Today is the seventh day of this. You are supposed to write at least 1,667 words of your novel every day.

Now, for the past 6 days, I have gone above the daily word-count goal, but I am still a couple of hundred words behind, due to a blunder of mine on the first day. On November 1st, I procrastinated (a great way to start off lol) and ran out of time. I only wrote 169 words that day. That was probably the worst way to start off my first year of this challenge 😂. I am catching up, and I should actually get ahead of my goal by the 15th or so (unless I make another mistake haha).  All the while, I have been extremely busy this week between NaNo, marching band, homework, extracurriculars, worship team, and church activities. I decided to go into my novel and share some of my work with you. (Please keep in mind, this is a very raw first draft. I have been working in 15-minute writing sprints and not allowing myself to go back and edit any of this. This passage will probably sound very different by the time I actually edit it around the beginning of January or so. Right now, it's quantity over quality.)

As she listened to Mawdy banter on about the gossip she had heard from the people who came to visit, Rory walked around the barn. She ran her soft hands over the stiff wooden walls as she had done many times before. She missed when she and Mawdelyn were younger, before the war began, and would sit in this very barn with many of the children from the town, all curled up, talking. Rory enjoyed hearing everyone else speak about their hopes and dreams, even though they were quite unrealistic. They couldn’t do that anymore. Too many people headed to one place would look suspicious and it could possibly attract attention from the guards, and that could be dangerous for the Rolfe’s business. Mawdyln’s father disappeared when she was about 10. Her mother was unemployed and had to quickly think of a way to provide for herself and her two daughters. They found that they were able to sell the milk that they got from their cows to the people of Diemere. This is how they had made their income for the last 6 years. Although Mawdy was the same age as Rory, she did not get to enjoy being a teenager. She was constantly working with milk sales or taking care of her sister. Her sister, who was 7 years older than her, had always been sickly. Mawdy had to start taking care of her when her mother fell ill. She was now taking care of the both of them and running the family business. Mawdelyn tried to make the most out of her situation, and constantly looked for the positive, which was a quality Rory wished she possessed.

“-and so that is what happened between Mr. and Mrs. Hornbill a couple of days ago. Um, let me go get your order. I don’t want to keep you too long. I know your mom probably wants you back soon.” Rory smiled at her friend as she skipped out of the barn.

This is a small part of the first chapter. Once I finish editing it later on, I will post a HEAVILY edited version. I hope that the rest of you who are participating win this year (this means to reach the 50k word count) and I hope all of you have a great rest of your day!

Thank you for visiting my blog, and God Bless!!!