Here we are, halfway through Week Three now. I’m done counting by days, I’m thinking in terms of weeks now.
Was it just me, or did the first two weeks whizz by like they had better things to do? I didn’t make it this far in NaNo last year, so this is my first time taking the week three corner on two wheels, full speed ahead. Those first two weeks were not nearly the challenge they were last year, but this is new territory for me now. Can I sustain this pace for another two weeks? (ok, week and a half) This, as they say, is where the rubber meets the road. My word count is maintaining, despite a small setback over the weekend but I’m still ahead of the daily minimum. I know some people have already hit the 50K mark (rather anti-climactic, no?), I don’t know what they do after that. Keep going, I guess?
I’ll say this: writing at this pace sure produces piles of garbage. If I didn’t have a day job, and had nothing to do all day but write, 1667 words a day should be a piece of cake. But trying to squeeze it in to a couple of hours in the evening when I’m almost too tired to think is not producing the level of writing I would like. Frankly, it’s pretty craptastic. Ah well, there’ll be plenty of time to clean it up later. How’s everyone else holding up?
Let’s have a little levity for the day, courtesy of the late, great, Douglas Adams:
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
fillingspaces.wordpress.com 
I’m behind and worst is I’m not even worried.
I don’t know where this overconfidence comes from, but I’m receiving it with open arms. Anything is better than opancking at the fact that I need to have 30 000 words by the end of today, and I only have 26 000+.
Well, I’ll pull through eventually … I hope … XD
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Hi Ana,
That’s not so far behind, really. Even if you can’t make it all up today, an extra 500 words a day for a few days will catch you up. Last year when I admitted defeat I was behind by something on the order of 15,000 words. You can still make it!
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I had fallen a bit behind (as I’d mentioned before), but the Muse rewarded my daily BIC and writing efforts, because this morning I wrote over 2,000 words in about 45 minutes.
Granted, it’s almost entirely “tell”. But now I have a good idea of how I later want to rewrite (“show”) that scene.
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That’s all that matters right now! Wow, the keyboard must still be smoking, 2000 words in 45 minutes!! 🙂
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silly me — all excited b/c I broke 10K last night. But I’m with anacnunes (and some other previous posters) — it’s really all about the journey. As a NaNo newbie i’m just glad to be getting daily BIC time, and I find I look forward to it each day.
I look like a deranged old lady (or a sloppy bookie) when I take all the little scraps of paper out of my pockets and purse at day’s end when I sit down at the computer. I have all these jottings and droppings of ideas throughout the day that I have to write down or i’ll forget them. I’m not sure if they aren’t just creating a hodge-podge of a story, but it’s like I’m day dreaming and stumble on something that a fits a character or a scene (usually while I’m doing something totally unrelated to actual thinking — like my “real job” or washing dishes).
But you all are real inspiration. Thanks again!
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Maybe you are a poet, rather than a novellist, and the jottings & droppings mean to be fragmented, rather than narrative. I, for one, would love to see what they look like in their original condition.
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Rosie, you should celebrate that 10K milestone! Seriously, writing fiction is not like any other kind of writing. And those bits of inspiration that come while ‘day-dreaming’ are usually the best. (they also have a habit of showing up just as you’re waking up in the morning, still half-asleep, or as you’re drifting off to sleep at night, when you’re in an altered state of consciousness, and then you have to root around in the dark for pen and paper…). Just keep truckin’! Before you know it, you’ll be crossing the 20K line.
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Rosie,
Indeed- hitting 10 K is a fantastic milestone. You have every reason to feel proud!
DD,
So true. My best ideas do tend to come in that twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness. I keep a journal and pen under my pillow for that very reason.
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Thank you, gypsyscarlett and DD! Your insight and encouragement have helped. I’d say the whole NaNo community has been a nice group to fall into.
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I just wish I would have learned that lesson long ago. I can’t tell you how many ideas I lost because I was too lazy to go hunting for pen and paper when an idea struck just as I was drifting off to sleep!
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