That’s nearly 13,000 words behind my 2000/day word goal, but only 6,555 behind the NaNo goal of 1667/day. So a couple of stellar writing days and I should be back on track.
I bet you expected I'd fall off the wagon. Oh, you know me so well. I refuse to quit, though. Still being dragged along by a tether, battered but furously kicking my legs to get back on my feet.
As for the story, it continues to travel places I hadn’t anticipated. Some of the paths are predictable and not very interesting, but some of them are new and full of potential. I’m really looking forward to getting this thing written, letting it simmer for a couple of months then working through the editing process.
It looks like I’ll be packing the AlphaSmart NEO with me on our trip to Florida. Did I purposely sabotage my efforts to get ahead just so that I’d have an excuse to stay in and write while Chuck and the boys entertain my in-laws?
18,416: just a hair above the goal of 18,337 words.
Like the first day I sat down to work on this project, I came to the keyboard with no clue where to pick up. After procrastinating a good part of the morning away – overslept, washed some dishes, checked my email (big no-no), contemplated going back to bed…, I finally put fingers to keys and typed. And, like the first day of this project, the words came. One of my secondary characters decided she needed to step into the action again, and there’s the new guy who needs further development.
I also took a little time out to work up a timeline to keep my dates and seasons straight. There is a lot going on and many moving parts.
The surprising development of the day is that I’m toying with the idea of magical realism - especially with the emergence of this new guy and some things in my main character’s background that could lend a mystical quality.
How many books have you read or movies have you watched with a critical eye, pointing out the problems and saying, “I could have done a better job than that"? You know, it’s really not as easy as it looks.
What started for me as an idea and, for the first several days, seemed to be taking shape with little effort has morphed into a sluggish, droll blur of words strung into sentences that bear so little resemblance to anything readable that I’m embarrassed to even open the file and continue.
Is mid-novel too late to outline? I think I need an outline.
I added a character today – a new guy - because my main character needs more depth. I mean, she is who the story is all about, but she is the person to whom I’ve really paid the least attention. She needs a life – especially if I’m going to make a reader care that she loses it. This new guy promises me he’ll not be a minor player in this adventure. He likes to be the center of attention; or, at least as close as he can get.
