Good grief! Week three of NaNoWriMo is over already! It’s been a week of straying more and more from my outline while still heading to the same ending for Time and Space I’d envisioned many moons ago. It’s been a week of fighting fatigue and of energizing excitement over letting my imagination loose. And the week I passed 40,000 words. Woot!
Writing is therapy, they say, meaning writing about what troubles you is therapy. For me, the very act of writing is therapy. It’s a also great distraction from everyday troubles because all of my cognitive and creative processes are working overtime during the act of writing. Even my subconscious is engaged. Today’s NaNoWriMo was partly having to work out and describe the cultural norms in my future version of Toronto and partly writing therapy to escape the knowledge of my birthday tomorrow; the session went on for a very long time. My muscles and fingers are feeling it. But my word count is happy, if such an inanimate concept can be said to be happy. 3515 words. I’m ahead of my main competitors. 🙂
It’s my birthday. Of course I began it the best and only way I can: writing! NaNoWriMo and my time travel novel wait for no birthday to be over and regular routine to reassert itself. Today’s chapter was a continuation of a shopping and learning-about-the-future society journey my character started on two chapters ago. I think I’ve now filled in all the details about how this society thinks and acts. I’m sure during revisions, I’ll notice many gaps that will have to be filled in and details to be fleshed out. But I’m happy with this morning’s writing. It feels complete with nothing forgotten. 2771 words. I’m really pulling ahead of my goal word count now!
Two days of heavy writing have knocked me out. Thankfully, today’s scene was short. It seemed fairly straightforward too, and then I began writing my first paragraph. It went off in a different direction. Whoa. I had to reign my runaway fingers in and focus, focus, focus on the topic at hand, or the scene I’d originally envisioned anyway. I can’t move the plot forward if I’m obsessed with dogs.
I did the necessary today, the bare bones of a transition kind of chapter for my NaNoWriMo novel “Time and Space”. Or maybe I should say it’s a pivotal one, one that doesn’t need to be long but changes the course of my main character’s journey … for the moment. 1278 words.
I’ve reached and passed the 40k mark for NaNoWriMo! Yay! That’s all I got to say today. Today’s chapter wiped. me. out.
It makes a big difference when I have my normal (albeit low) levels of energy, instead of being so fagged I don’t want to move never mind think, like I have been for too many days. Having even some energy makes writing not a chore but exciting.
I looked at what was on tap today and made a face. Boring. And not right. Doesn’t fit. Doesn’t work. So I looked at little ahead in my outline, a little behind. Thought about it, remembered where I had left off yesterday, opened a blank page in WordPerfect and went off in a slightly but significantly different direction. I came to a pause, rather liked that line as the last one in the chapter, but was not happy with the word count: about 1400 words, over 200 words short of the NaNoWriMo suggested daily count. So I scanned back up my chapter, saw that one of my characters, Hope, really should say more. Wondered what? And then told myself, let her rip, let her loose, just let my fingers obey my instincts. So I did. I feel good. 2151 words (which according to NaNoWriMo is my daily average word count!).
Don’t forget that for this month only, in honour of my third NaNoWriMo, my first highly rated NaNo novel “She” ebook is on sale for 99¢ only!
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And now I’m getting offline to go snack and read. Happy Sunday! 🙂
My writing session was rudely interrupted by appointments this morning. Still, I had typed fast enough that I stopped at a natural break. I’ve completely left my outline now (though I think I’ll be returning to it tomorrow) — which is like walking on a tightrope over Niagara Falls without a safety harness — exhilirating and scary — and so the question for me was: was that break the end of the chapter or should I write one more scene? By the end of the day, I’d decided: time to write one more scene. NOW the chapter is complete. Two short writing stints equals one fat word count. And I think I really, finally have explained everything about this society and its tech … maybe. I’m only two-thirds of the way through the book though, lots of time left to explain more if needed. A little mystery is good! (I know, I know. Confusion is not.)
3179 words total for today. I should have cake after this. But I’ll content myself with a hot chocolate. 🙂
