April 2025 Camp NovMo: Baking RomCom

4/3

Today's words: 232/500
April words: 1714
Total manuscript words: 29,964 (lol comically just below 30k)
Today's bracket count: 3
A line?


Wasn't really in a writing mood today and I think I'm nearing a point where I'll need to do a bit of research to be able to avoid entire scenes that are just one big bracket. But that feels like a good weekend problem!

And because I wrote so much the last two days I'm technically still ahead on my word count goal!

4/4

Today's words: 333/500
April words: 2047
Total manuscript words: 30,297 (30k!!!)
Today's bracket count: 17
A line?


Did some light research this morning to help with this scene and did some light planning for future scenes. I didn't actually start writing until pretty late but oh well! My main goal was to at least stay on track with my overall word count goal (which I still miraculously am!) And I'm hopeful that my light planning today will help yield a fruitful writing weekend! I have few reasons to leave my house this weekend and it's going to rain most of the weekend, which is a perfect recipe for rotting on my couch and writing!

4/5

Today's words: 1556/500
April words: 3523
Total manuscript words: 31,773
Today's bracket count: 45
A line?
Obviously nothing can happen with Theo and me — we’re competing on a stupid baking show and when the summer is over I’ll go back to Indianapolis and he’ll go back to [city] and we’ll probably never see each other again.
shhh i don't know where theo lives yet



My main character (Piper) is on a baking competition show -- so that means I have to come up with baking challenges for said baking competition show. Some of my planning last night was related to those challenges and I did more of that planning this morning!

I did three 25-minute sprints today with this write with me livestream recording. Finished the scene I've been working on -- and finished it with this bracket highlight: [wrap this scene up nicely idk]

Started a new scene and realized I'm probably only a few scenes away from the midpoint!

Great work, Carlito! You've been quite the consistent writer over here!!

4/6

Today's words: 48/500
April words: 3571
Total manuscript words: 31,821
Today's bracket count: 1
A line?


lol wasn't in a writing mood today! But I'm still ahead of my word count goal, and my other goal was to write something every day so we're still on track with that too!

(and within those 48 words I managed a subtle reference to bunny rom com because I love referencing my own work within my work!)

Whoo! Wonderful constant work here!

4/7

Today's words: 190/500
April words: 3761 (still ahead of goal)
Total manuscript words: 32.011
Today's bracket count: 1
A line?


Also wasn't really in a writing mood and started too late in the evening! (I have also the abandoned the oh I'll just write 25 minutes per day plan lol. It's so hard to write during the work week. I used to be an excellent night writer and I feel like now I write best first thing in the morning, which is usually not feasible with my schedule. But oh well, still writing *something* every day!

I totally feel you with not having the time during a work week to write. I feel like I do best when I have the whole DAY to write. Recently I've only been squeezing in time during the college days to throw on a few words. It makes writing a fully coherent scene a bit of a pain,,,

Either way, keep up the good work!!!

4/8

Today's words: 641/500
April words: 4402
Total manuscript words: 32,652
Today's bracket count: 5
A line?


This actually shocked me??
I started late and I was tired and thought oh I'll just write 200 or so words and stay relatively on track but then I just... kept writing?
I wrote this scene a little out of order and was able to connect a later part with an earlier part and I think I'm closeish to finishing this scene too! Might be a tomorrow goal!
MAYBE I SPOKE TOO SOON AND I'M STILL A NIGHT WRITER AFTER ALL!!!

4/9

Today's words: 140/500
April words: 4542
Total manuscript words: 32,792
Today's bracket count: 5
A line?



lol wasn't in a writing mood again today and I'm tired so I decided I'd do just enough to stay on track with my overall goal (which meant I only needed 98 words today). There was a moment when I thought *what if I just get to 33k total words tonight -- that's only a few hundred words* and then I was like naaaaahhhhh. But I'm still technically ahead of my word count goal (and we're nearing a weekend where I should be able to rot at least one day and do a bunch of sprints!)

4/10

Today's words: 522/500
April words: 5064
Total manuscript words: 33, 314
Today's bracket count: 14
A line?


I AM STAYING ON TRACK AGAINST ALL ODDS.
For real I'm impressed that I'm a third of a way through my goal and we're a third of the way through the month.
I had to bounce between scenes to get there tonight because the words weren't really wording for more than a few paragraphs at a time.
But I might have a busier weekend than I anticipated and may not have a rot on the couch day so I can't get too far behind! (and I'm for once not behind lol)

took yesterday off as a break day!


4/12

Today's words: 1964/500
April words: 7028
Total manuscript words: 35,278
Today's bracket count: 54
A line?
Not that it’s a crime for Theo and I to spend some time together, but I can’t have her getting the wrong idea.


Thanks All-Day Writing Spring for the motivation! This is the most words I've written in a whileeeee. Probably since November NovMo? Also my highest bracket count yet which I love!

I finally finished the scene I've been chipping away at for most of last week and wrote a full other scene! Only two scenes left and then I'm to the midpoint which doesn't feel real.

(also I'll need to do some more light plotting soon because I only have the vaguest sense of what happens in act 3 -- I write in a 4 act structure -- but the bigger problem is I only barely know what happens in the next scene so here's hoping a brain wave comes soon!)

I have been doing things!!

4/13 - 4/16

Today's words: 1065/2000
April words: 8093
Total manuscript words: 36,343
Today's bracket count: haven't been keeping track -- assume it's a loooottt
A line?
“I mean, if you want to get behind me and pretend to teach me how to throw a bean bag, be my guest.”

& this winning bracket:
[describe the set up because I’m too lazy right now to think about how to explain it].



I took two days off and did some brainstorming and managed to write 500 words yesterday to stay on track with my word count goal. Motivation was LOW today! I'm writing the first kiss scene which should be a no-brainer thing for me but I still don't quite have a vision for how this scene should go. I also think because I fully get to know my characters by writing my characters, it's hard to write their first kiss when I don't know them know them yet, you know? This scene is *quite* blobby, but that's a Second Draft Problem!

Even though I didn't write for two days, I'm miraculously still on track with my overall goal because of my big word count on Saturday! I'm genuinely shocked that I'm still on track because if you've seen literally any of my previous NovMo threads I'm basically behind after three days and fight to catch up the rest of the time lol.

didn't write for two days because I knew I'd be able to write today for the second All Day Writing Sprint!

4/19

Today's words: 3114
April words: 11,207 (whoa.)
Total manuscript words: 39,457
Today's bracket count: 79 (lol incredible stuff)
A line?
It’s worth being on this show just for the chance to know him.



My goal today was to get to the midpoint. That meant writing 1.5 scenes (finishing the first kiss scene and then the midpoint scene after that). And I did the thing!!

I'm super happy with today because this is the most I've written in one day in a long time and I surpassed what I wrote on the last all-day writing sprint day

Did I consider writing until I hit 40k? Maybe. Because I'm actually so close and that shocked me! It also shocked me that I've surpassed 11k on words written this month. That's literally 4x the amount I've written since November.

I probably won't write tomorrow? Because I have truly only the vaguest idea of what happens in act 3 (again, I use a four act structure). I need to do some light plotting and some planning for the upcoming baking challenges (only a vague idea for those as well).

Now that I'm at the midpoint I have a better idea of where this draft will end up word count wise and she's going to be a little fatter than I thought! I'm usually an under-writer and with the amount of brackets I'll eventually need to go fill in, I think this first draft will be longer than 80k. (my books are usually in the 70-75k range)

Hey!!! I'm so glad to see that you are so far along, and you've passed the kiss scene. Looks like you are doing good work!

I also find it really interesting that you use the four act structure, is there a set of events you assign to these four acts?