Here is the next installment of my JuNoWriMo Participant Inteviews. Please welcome A.M. Schultz.
Tell me a little about what you are writing for Junowrimo.
I had been toggling ideas for three different WIPs prior to JuNoWriMo. The one I choice to focus primarily on for JuNoWriMo has been a fantasy piece. Choosing Fantasy over the other two has had some advantages, but there is so much world building required that much of my “word count” has been used to outline characters, nations, etc. I’m not sure I’d have made nearly as much progress without the challenge aspect, though.
Is this your first time doing this type of challenge?
Something this formal, yes. I used to write fiction pieces on weekly deadlines here-and-there, but this is my first time taking a multi-writer challenge of this magnitude.
How has it meet your expectations so far?
It’s been “different,” in the sense that I won’t have 50,000 pages of a manuscript completed at the end, but I will have a much more developed world at my disposal by the time the month is done. I started 7 days into the challenge, and intentionally took on a project that I knew would need tons of polishing either way.
What was your writing schedule like this past week; time of day, # of words per day.
My schedule has been pretty bonkers. I am a full-time student through the year and actually took the Summer off, so I assumed I’d have tons of time to just write. I still hold a full-time job, too, and between setting up a better platform for my website, redoing the graphic work, etc, and then working on book cover graphics, blog posts, I’ve just had to squeeze writing in when I can.
I carry a pocket Moleskine notebook about with me everywhere, though, and sketch an idea down, expand it in one of my larger notebooks, then type out the ideas later. For the fantasy world, I actually used the PC game “Civilization IV” by Sid Meier to create the map (which crashed on me after about six hours of plotting the world the first time), and it has been incredibly helpful.
All-in-all, JuNoWriMo work and miscellaneous stuff, I’m logging a good 60-70 hours a week, so hopefully this all pans out eventually.
Did you do any planning for Junowrimo? If so what type of planning and how are your plans working out so far?
I actually found out about JuNoWriMo on the 7th of the month after seeing a few friends on my Twitter feed using the #JuNoWriMo hashtag, so no planning. I was aware of NaNoWriMo, and had told myself I would consider taking that challenge later in the year. If anything, I think I realized that this isn’t the type of challenge you can complete successfully without some type of gameplan.
What is your word count as of June 22th?
I’ve got about 8,500 words, which is WAAAAAY off the mark. But, I have a better idea of where I want the story to go than had I just started writing aimlessly, so I’ll take it. I’m hoping to be sitting around the 15,000 mark by the end of the challenge.
To learn more about AM Schultz, please be sure to visit his site and following him on Twitter.
Sydney Aaliyah Michelle 