Day six is over and for the next few hours NaNo will take the back seat to my US election all nighter.

Most of my writing for day six got done before seven am. I couldn’t sleep so got over 2,000 words done before going to sleep. No more words after that unfortunately and I already know that day seven is going to be a wash out as I will be exhausted from all the election watching.

Day six was focused almost entirely on chapter development again. I had several characters that weren’t well rounded enough and I wanted to make sure they were fully rounded before I carried on and took the story much further.

I’m starting to get to know my characters a lot more and I think that is really important for me as a first time writer.

I took a massive step forward in terms of research today as well. My main character grew up in a children’s home and so far I had just been stumbling through the background of her story. I decided to finally phone my Nanny and ask her for help. The thing about my Nanny is that she rocks, she grew up in a children’s home and I think that gave her so much more love to give to her children and grandchildren.

I had wanted to ask her some questions about growing up for a while but wasn’t sure how to approach the subject. The main character of my story is inspired by my Nanny, she’s strong, independent and loveable. Although this story isn’t the story of my Nanny it definitely would never have come about if she wasn’t so amazing.

She was happy to help me with my research and I learned so much, both for my story and about my Nanny’s childhood. I didn’t think it was possible but she’s even more awesome than I originally thought.

I will have to go back and do some rewrites because a lot of my story is factually wrong but it will be worth it in the long run.