Sat Nov 22 13:37:38 GMT 2008
So, the last week of the month is heaving into view. And I've written 34044 words of my novel. That's slightly behind the par score of 36674, but I'm planning 40000 words by the end of the weekend, leaving a nice 10k downhill coast to the 30th and winning nanowrimo. Hopefully.
It's been a fascinating process so far. I've had to struggle with tough days where no words would come, fight with knotty plot problems that threatened to derail the narrative, ignore stabs and twinges in hands and wrists that resent ten or eleven hours of keyboard-poking five days a week. But it's been worth it for the strange insights and surprises I wasn't expecting when I started out: the moment the characters started acting and thinking for themselves, the twists and scenes that popped into my head seemingly from nowhere, the threads of narrative that knit themselves together into a strange coherence without my intervention. For those things alone it has already been worth it.
However, that's probably enough procrastination for now. I've a good chunk of words to hammer out before the end of the day, and hopefully they're all shuffled into place somewhere in my subconscious hind brain by now, waiting to be painted onto the page.
See you on the 30th.