Archive for November 2010 | Monthly archive page
The gals over at the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood reminded me that time’s running out to get my Golden Heart entries mailed off.
Yes, the deadline is Dec. 2 … but in order to use snail mail instead of a more expensive method of delivery, I probably ought to visit the post office before Thanksgiving.
That means I need to take a day (or at least part of a day) off to re-read my entries one more time and then prep them for the mailbox.
Wow. I really should have done this before I started NaNo. Even though I’m still slightly ahead in my word count, I don’t want to take a lot of time off. I’d love to remain ahead … it’s a nice change from last year, when I was behind the entire month and didn’t even finish.
I’m only scheduled to work a half-day Sunday, so I’ll set aside part of the day to reading the entries and printing entries/synopses for the GH judges.
Now, to get money for postage before Friday (my next payday) …
Forget dreaded Week 2 — I need a cheerleader to drag me through Week 3 here.
As expected, I’m adding to my NaNo word count much more slowly now that I’ve run into the “sagging middle” of my story.
I’m not giving up, though … and I definitely plan to finish. It’s just not coming quite as easily now.
Remember the trouble I was having getting Kenny and Kristi to do the deed?
Well, I finally managed to get them into bed — yes, I was writing @ Starbucks at the time — and now I can’t seem to write them OUT.
A NaNoWriMo write-in begins in less than 20 minutes at Barnes & Noble, so I’ll do it … but it might not be pretty.
I added only a couple hundred words to my total on Friday. (Took the day off to run errands and do my usual payday shopping. Hit the new Super Walmart after work last night … at 1 a.m. it was super silent and empty. I got to browse to my heart’s content!)
Isn’t that a song title?
More importantly, it’s where my NaNo novel is as of tonight. Yes, I crossed the 25,000-word mark … important because 25,000 is half of 50,000. See, Ma? Even though I’m a writer, I can do math! 😉 That’s important because it means I’m halfway finished.
My stats, so far:
- Words Written Today — 2233
- Suggested Daily Word Count — 1667
- Cumulative Word Count — 25164
- Current Day — 11
- Suggested Cumulative Word Count — 18334
- Average Words per Day — 2288
- At This Rate You Will Finish On — Nov 22 (Oh, if only I could keep up this pace and finish before Thanksgiving!)
- Days Remaining — 19
- Total Words Remaining — 24836 (less than I’ve already written …) 😉
- Words per Day to Finish on Time — 1308
Pretty nice, eh?
I keep comparing this year’s experience to last year’s, though. In 2009, I signed up for the NaNo for the first time with the intention of writing 40,000 words to finish my 90,000-word manuscript. By the end of November, I’d only written about 25,000 words.
While that was 25,000 words I didn’t already have — and I finished that MS a couple of weeks later, before Christmas — I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped.
Tonight, I sit here having already written as much as I did all month long last year. It’s a heady feeling, but a little worrisome all the same.
Is what I’m writing now any good? Or am I writing too quickly, meaning I’ll have to go back and throw three-quarters of it out when I start editing?
Maybe my speed has something to do with starting with a blank slate. Sure, Kenny and Kristi have been bouncing around in my head for years, but I only wrote one scene in which they made an appearance — and that was told from someone else’s POV (Kenny’s brother Brad, the hero in my first book).
Or maybe I’m just in better (writing) shape this year. I have been putting in a lot of practice since January. (More than 120,000 words written since Jan. 19 — and that’s without my NaNo count.)
On the plus side, Kenny & Kristi finally did the deed today. (And yes, I wrote the scene @ Starbucks. Oh, if anyone peeked over my shoulder at the screen, they would have been embarrassed … Or maybe I would have been embarrassed. Someone’s cheeks would have been cherry red, for sure.) 😉
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