It’s late in the fourth day of NaNoWriMo 2012, and I’m plugging away at Day of Calamity. I’ve dedicated plenty of time toward writing so far, but I’ve really struggled with getting the words out. I’m about a full day behind right now, so this update isn’t going to be very long.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned about my story as I write it:

I’m not playing fair when I skip mundane parts of my story to get to the exciting stuff. My story is about people living after an apocalyptic event, so there’s no such thing as mundane. I need to write it all out. Without those “mundane” details, I can’t write a good novel.

Two of my characters like each other. That was a surprise. I mean, that’s something I should’ve figured out earlier, right? I’m not sure how I feel about it. It’s kinda like watching my future daughter. I’m happy she’s happy, but I don’t know how I feel about her flirting and hugging guys. I’m already plotting to complicate that part (like any good father would).

I need to break up my story into smaller details. In my story planning for NaNo this year, I tried to plan out general chunks of story and let them work their way out as I write. That was a bad idea. The clearer I can be about what I want to happen, the better my writing will be.

Okay that’s all I’ve got for now.

Oh wait. One more thing. On Friday, I created a cover for my novel. Here it is: