It's okay, I had my moment of doubt, too. I rolled into Thanksgiving week under 27,000 words, knowing that I'd not likely get much writing done over our trip to Florida. We headed out of town last Sunday; me armed with the AlphaSmart Neo and my novel on a USB flash drive. I managed to squeak out a couple thousand words during the trip, but found it hard to get in the groove.
When I woke this morning and calculated that winning NaNo was going to take more than 20,000 words over the next three days, the fight-or-flight instinct set in and I got down to typing.
I'm ready to call it a night, but feel confident that I'll hit the 50,000 word goal by midnight November 30th. I do have until midnight, right?
Okay, so that's 10,000 words less than my personal 60,000 word goal, but, that's been the story of my life - whatever it takes to get by.
I'll work on behavior modification once NaNo is over.
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.
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.
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.
Mmm. It just might work.
Copyright 2005, 2006 Cynthia T. Adams and Gooblink.com
