Year-long NaNo discussion

I'd like to average 500 words a day in 2018, so my weekly goal is 3500.

I have failed that, alas, for my first week of January! My total for the week is a mere: 688. (On the plus side, I got a lot of reading in . . . .)

Thank you! Doing much better already. Outlining only though, right now, and still in search of a title . . . .

Sorry for the delayed response, Elizabeth! Good advice re the title. I'm in the early stages of outlining a pulpy spy novel with a twist of urban fantasy/horror.

My outlining is not systamatic. I usually write a few scenes I know I want to include, then work on fleshing out the characters and what drives them, and finally figure out the nuts and bolts of the plot by working up a scene-by-scene summary.

I don't have a handy plot summary yet, but I can give you a slice of the first scene I started with, unpolished:

***

“Ze Antonio?”

The young man glanced up from his menu, his dark eyes widening behind his glasses as he breathed in hard through his mouth. He certainly looked the part of a frightened boffin. If this was an act, John thought, it was convincing.

“Um, yes,” he answered. “But you don’t say it like that. It’s—it’s all run together. ‘Zantonio.’ But I go by Tony, usually.”

John almost mustered a smile. “I stand corrected.” He indicated the chair in front of him. “May I?”

“Please.” Ze Antonio—he didn’t look at all like a Tony—set the menu down and folded his shaking hands together on the table. “You got my message?”

“Yes.” John took the seat. He was highly exposed here, with no easy exit. But the Brandao family was known for their subtlety, if not their morals, so he didn’t think they meant to assassinate him in the middle of a local Indian restaurant. Especially since it wouldn’t gain them anything.

“I, uh, didn’t think you would actually show.”

John picked up the menu without bothering to reply. All vegetarian, as he suspected. He sighed and put it back down.

Ze Antonio, meanwhile, was peering at John’s right hand, frowning as he tried to make out the emblem of the ring John wore on his third finger. “You are John Gloster? Or, at least—” His face flushed as he broke off.

“The man who goes by that name?”

“Yes. I know it’s not your real name. I . . . did some research.”

John smirked. “And you learned a lot from hacking into our systems.” But he removed the ring as he spoke and held it out to the young man.

Ze Antonio took it and examined it so carefully that John half expected him to take out a jewelry loupe. He didn’t go that far, but he studied every aspect of the emblem before handing it back.

“The lance and drum.” Ze Antonio stared at him, eyes wide and owlish behind the glasses. “I thought, uh, you’d be a higher rank than Soldier. Miles, I mean.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” John paused to put the ring back on. “Now, what do you want from me?”

***

So that's the scene I started with. Now I need to know more about these two protagonists and the people in their lives. That should lead to more scenes (or fragments of scenes) and, eventually, some kind of coherent outline . . . .

Well, last week was less than stellar for me. I'd like to average 500 a day, but my actual word count was 500 for the week!

I've begun keeping a spreadsheet of my daily word count, noting the time of day and what else was going on--was I trying to keep half an eye on the TV as well, for example? Hopefully this will help me figure out when I'm most productive and focused.