Day 15. 1 pm. Word count: 31,197 Fragmented thoughts.

I wrote nearly 1k words in a half hour sprint last night, reaching my 2k goal before midnight with two minutes to spare. Booyah.

This paranormal tale is having surprisingly little paranormal stuff going on. I think I’ll have to add more during editing.

I’m in the one Starbucks in Tuscaloosa (the ones in Target and Barnes & Noble totally don’t count). About ten minutes ago, there was a guy in here who was screaming at all the Asian patrons about the Korean War. When one of the baristas came to throw him out, I thought he was going to hit her. I’m still anxious that he’s going to come back with a gun and shoot the place up. This will probably make its way into my writing. If, you know, I’m not murdered by crazy Korean War guy…

Day 14. 1 pm. 28,959 words.

Got a late start today, so I’ve written 552 words today so far. The kids have piano lessons today, so I’ll have a half hour in their school library with nothing to do but write. Hopefully that will help!

Day 13. 1pm. Word count: 26,724

Only 467 words so far today. I feel like I’m getting slower and slower, as if I’m trying to walk through slowly cooling molasses. I’ve been able to make my 2,000 goal every day so far (I mean, there was that one day about a week ago where the last 400 words or so came after midnight, and thus was credited to the next day, but I made up for that), but it’s getting harder and harder. Week 2 sucks.

Day 12. 1 pm. Word count: 25,263

Over halfway to the 50k word goal! I am worried, though, that I am not halfway through my story. I think this thing is gonna be longer that 50k, and I’m worried about running out of motivation to finish once I hit 50k and the NaNoWriMo goal is met. Hopefully I’ll be able to push on and finish. Then put it aside for a month or so before returning to hack it apart with a scalpel…

Day 11. 1 pm. Word count: 22374

I have written 317 words today. 317. Admittedly, it’s Veteran’s Day, so the kids don’t have school, so they’re here with me at Starbucks and are pretty distracting. Still. Bleh. 317 words? Seriously?

Day 8. 1pm. Word count: 16,772

Yesterday I finished my 2000 words before I left Starbucks. Today I’ve got about 45 minutes left before I go pick up the kids, and I’m a little over 1000 words for the day. Some days the word flow, and some days I’m clawing my way to my word count. Such is the way of things. The key is to keep going, no matter what. A little pep talk to all you NaNo warriors out there. Not to mention a little pep talk for me!

Day 7. 12:50pm. Word count: 15,477

I’ve come up with a system: I write 500+ words, I get to spend half an hour on the internet. It works great. And a lot of that half hour is spent attending to social media maintenance, so doubly good!

Day 6. 12:30pm. Word count: 12,518

This NaNo pep talk from Catherynne Valente is freaking brilliant. Go read.

Day Five. 12:30 pm. Word count: 10,206

I’m sitting here in Starbucks, writing about something horrible that’s happened to one of my characters, describing him sobbing. I’m crying. In the middle of Starbucks.

I hope that means the scene works, and not just that I’m a freak crying in the middle of Starbucks…

NaNoWriMo Day 4

1 pm CST

Word count: 7904

I’m typically a “pantser” and not a “planner.” That is, I don’t outline, I don’t lay out the story ahead of time, I just go and let the story reveal itself. “Write to find out,” as Paul McComas would say. But this time, I’m finding my brain is excitedly giving me information about how this will go, what each scene will be, and even how the thing will end. I’ve been taking copious notes as I’ve been writing. I won’t hold myself strictly to these plans, but it is interesting, even nice, to have them.