Well, folks, we’re two weeks into NaNoWriMo now. We have officially hit the halfway point. Which means I SHOULD be at approximately 25k words in my novel by now. Alas, that is not the case. I am currently at approximately 17k words right now, which means I am around 8k words behind. The last week especially has been very slow going. I’ve only been managing around 400-700 words per night lately. Partly because I am EXHAUSTED from work, but mostly because I am very stuck. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m totally pantsing it this year. Usually I am a big planner, with lots of outlines and character profiles and chapter breakdowns, etc. I have none of that this year, and its really getting difficult now. I have no clue where I’m going. I’ve been forcing myself to write SOMETHING, ANYTHING, the last few nights, but it has resulted in mostly talking around in circles and not advancing the plot in any useful way.
I’m hoping I can work out at least a few rough sketchy outline-y bits and pieces this week. Even if it just gets me a few steps ahead of where I’m at, that would be a huge help. Because I am very very lost right now.
I have settled a few sort of general VIBES I’m going for in this story though. I’m definitely leaning into the shonen anime feel of it. But I’m also REALLY digging into a “found family” sort of thing, and probably a little queer romance subplots as well. I think.
In the meantime, if you’re curious, I put together a story mood board for The Onyx Seal on Pinterest, which can be found here: https://pin.it/1rcu9TT (The assortment of images there probably doesn’t make any kind of thematic sense to anyone but me, but I’m ok with that.)
In other news: I’ve also been reading a fair bit, and hope to have a couple book reviews up shortly. Hopefully within the next few days *fingers crossed* provided that I can a) find some energy after work, and b) fit regular blog writing into the Nano-packed schedule.
That’s all for now! If any of you are doing Nano and want to share your projects, please feel free! I’d love to hear what you’re working on!
Amanda Haimoto Rudd 
As a fellow pantser myself, I can safely say that you shouldn’t be afraid to write yourself into a corner. Take your first draft as a very detailed outline. You can always change all the plot points later. Yes, it’s going to be a less-polished draft than you’re used to as a plotter, but such is the life of pantsing, lol.
Wishing you all the best with this WIP!
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