10:53 AM: I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wrote a 51,173 word novel--And with two days to spare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving Day

Happy TG! Today is my penultimate day of writing.
It is 8:30 AM and here goes….

9:33—1145 words
9:41—1320 words
Tea break
10:36—2135

Total—47,882

I give thanks for NaNoWriMo and I give thanks that tomorrow I will be done with NaNoWriMo.

Day 26 in Vermont

Today we drove to Stowe, did some shopping, walked around, had lunch and then took a tour of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory. Piece of total trivia: My favorite flavor, Cherry Garcia, is their best selling flavor!
Then we soaked in the hot tub.

I wrote before we left: 8:27---506 words

And then again when we came back: 5:23 to
6:31—1629 words

New total: 45,747

Day 25 in Vermont

I realize that if I do 2132 words today and each day from now until Friday I can be finished on Friday!

I’ve been doing this for about 2 hours and am at 1861, so just 271 words more! I have been doing some filling in of information about the characters, description and stuff about Cast’s ideas.

There was a suggestion in the Baty book about describing weather. I think I will do that next!

2138 at 11:14.

Total: 43,612

Day 24 in Vermont

No writing yesterday—traveling to Vermont

Today: 2 writing sessions, morning and evening
Morning: 1003 words
Evening: Just read Chris Baty email and he said to write 250 words when I finished, so here goes. Wrote 187. Stopped for dinner.

Later: 2017 Total today

Grand total so far: 4l,474

Day #22

The 45th anniversary of the day Kennedy was shot.

Writer Gayle Brandeis quoting Margaret Atwood in a NaNoWriMo email:

“A word after a word/after a word is power.”

I really like that quote. It helps me.

10:30 1547 words. Gotta keep going.

11 AM—2005 words

New Total: 39,457

Day # 21

From writer Janet Fitch in a NaNoWriMo email :

"I know it feels like you have all these options and when you make a decision, you lose a world of possibilities. But the reality is, until you make a decision, you have nothing at all."

This is a quote about writing in general, but I made the decision to enter something I had written last May to the Writer’s Digest short-short story contest, under 1500 words. I just did it. That is a first for me. MY JUDGEMENT is that it is a completely weird piece. That no one but ME could possibly understand it. That may very well be. But submitting it was much easier than doing something like that would have been in the past. I just did it. And who knows what a reader might think? Who knows if it says anything at all in such a short space. I want it to be totally creepy. I do not know if I have succeeded. But I submitted it. How cool is that??

Wrote 2064 words.

New total: 37,452

Chillin' in the Sunset on the Beach

Namaste

No New Word Count Today

Okay, so this may be the most difficult writing day yet. Had to visit my mother in the VA Hospital this morning. It was an okay visit, but then I got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the Major Degan around Yankee Stadium, so a ride that should have taken an hour took almost two hours. So then I was late for a doctor’s appointment. Then I had to pick up the CSA. Then I had to return something. Then, when I brought the produce in and put it out on the kitchen counter and turned away to do something, my fluffy kitty with little brains jumped up on the counter and started eating the greens. Now they have cat slobber all over them. It is almost 4:30, it is getting dark, and I am totally uncentered. CAN I SKIP TODAY????

Well, let’s see…I have 14,612 words to go. And if I SKIP today, that will leave me 8 days to do that, since I will not be able to write on the two days traveling to and from Vermont. SO—that would mean 1827 words per day. Hey. I can actually do that.

So. No additional word count for today. I need to chill. Tune in tomorrow.

Day # 19

Another difficult writing day because it was another day that I could not start to write until late afternoon. Life really does get in the way. Work, chores, driving back and forth. Big time wasters, if you get into the head set that anything that takes you away from your writing is a waste of your time.

2007 words

35,388 words total

I am getting a little concerned that so much of the story is written and I still have to write 15,000 words. I need to look things over and see what needs more detail, explanation and background.

Is Something Fishy with the Word Validator?

BONUS!

I just tested the word count validator on the site by pasting in my whole ms. so far. And they came up with an extra 694 words. Hmmm. They suggested you try it out because sometimes their count might be more--or less--than yours and it is good to know this in advance of Nov. 30. Came out more. Don't look a gift count in the mouth... I'll take it. Now my new total is 34,075. Cool.

A HARD DAY

Getting a very late writing start today.

Wonderful last phone call with Jen's phone group.

Then I went to a poetry reading at Pace U. A poet named Deborah Poe.

What struck me was that all of these people—many college students—were sitting silently, listening to the poet read. By virtue of their being there, the words of the poet had meaning. I had a hard time following the gist of each poem. But it meant something for her to be sharing her writing with the assembled audience. There was meaning in the air. I had the sense that by listening to her we gave validity to her being a writer.

And now to my writing.
Today is extremely difficult. It is late afternoon, I am tired, and I hate trying to write at this time of day. I find myself having these little escapist thoughts. “Can’t I just NOT write anymore today?” “Isn’t there a way to up my word count tomorrow and skip today?” And worse worser worst thoughts: this is crap why am I bothering?

It is really like placing one foot in front of another, except that I am placing one word next to another. Plod Plod Plod over the page.
Okay. Done. 2002 words.
New Total: 33,381

An EASY Day

Reached my word count (1717) very soon and easily today. Part of it is because I pasted in about 300 words of a newspaper article that one of the characters discovers. But never mind. Word count is word count, and yesterday, between the novel, the journaling and an essay, I wrote about 3500 words, so I am doing fine.

New total: 31,951

ME HAPPY AFTER 30,000 WORDS

BROKE 30,000!!!!

Just received the week 3 note from NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty. Apparently there are predictable phases that each writer goes through each of the 4 weeks. During week #2 which just passed, there is the strong desire to scrap the whole idea that you have been working with and start over with a new and BETTER idea. This, apparently, is a really poor idea. I did have little inklings of doubting thoughtlings. I know that my whole story is kind of improbable and has lots of problemos, but I still have more ideas for it and I have a stronger desire to keep going than to start over. Starting over at this point would definitely give me the shivers. And I would never finish. Why am I even writing this now? I think it is because I am in such a good place with the writing and maybe I can hardly believe that it is still fun and dare I say easy? And I can see that this is not a given. 115,000 people all over the world are doing this. That is amazing too.

Week 3 is about gaining momentum to head for the finish line. That sounds good.

Reading also the week 3 chapter from Baty’s book “No Plot? No Problem!” He says that by this time the people in your life will be very tired of you spending time fixated on your writing and your novel. What does it say about the people in my life that no one even seems to notice what I am doing? Well, not no one, but almost. Every time I bring it up, it’s like, oh yeah right. Just reinforces my idea that my local support system sucks eggs. Besides my sweetie, the only one who consistently asks how my novel is coming along is my 86 year old mother who is having cognition issues and can not remember much of anything! And of course, because of my whole history with her, the fact that she is asking becomes more like nudging anyway. And I feel sorry that I ever mentioned it to her. Who knew that the only current events she would remember were that Obama was elected and I am writing a novel?

Oh no. Look at these paragraphs I have been writing. STOP IT. Get to the writing that counts. NOW.

Have to check my lotto numbers first….Interesting. How could I have picked all the wrong numbers again? Since I buy lotto tickets so infrequently, you would think that the Goddess of Lotto Luck would smile down on me when I do. Nope. Not a single number matched. She must have been busy baking pumpkin pies to freeze ahead of time for Thanksgiving. What am I writing??? GET TO WORK!

I am enjoying the NaNoWriMo message board. People moaning about word counts, but also some really nifty ideas about websites and ways to boost your count. Like a link to a joke website that lists jokes in various categories. The suggestion is to choose a joke and have a character tell it—but in a very long, drawn out version. And then there is the application that some deranged person made that threatens you if you don’t keep writing. It’s called “Write or Die.” I would say that this is possibly the polar opposite of all that Jen stands for. Either horrible noises occur or your writing actually starts to disappear if you stop writing for more than a few seconds or minutes. (You can set it to “gentle” which just reminds you to keep writing, but that isn’t so exciting.) Check it out.

http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html

And I continue not to write the novel. Gotta get going! No, need a cup of tea first. Then I will light my candle and really begin.

OK. Much later than I would have liked: broke 30,000 words!
Wrote 1673 words
New total: 30,234

My task in going forward: Maybe write the ending scenes next, since I know what is going to happen, and then continue with the fill-in scenes? The reason I am thinking of doing it that way is two-fold. First of all, that would let me write those final scenes and see how much they entail. And second, I might then have a better sense of what needs to be there earlier to have those scenes make sense. The scene I wrote today, which was supposed to be a scene giving some background on a possible suspect, seems largely superfluous. But if I am not 100% sure what I am leading up to then I do not know if spending 1667 on this character was too much or not. I am thinking that the ending would be about 10,000 words. So I need to make sure that the middle 11,000 or so words logically lead up to that. But writing the ending before I get there feels a bit scary. Either like I won’t want to go back once I have written it, or maybe that I will try to write it and it won’t make sense. Hmmm. Don’t quite know what is going on with me. I am certainly doing a lot of journal type writing today though.

Day #15: Half Way Through November

Lots of weekend things to do today around the house. Shopping and company coming for dinner.

But writing comes first.

Adding to previous scenes. All the leaves piled up gave me the idea to have the killer cover the body with fallen leaves.

Had to drag myself away from ridiculous videos of kitties doing silly things.

Wrote 1778 words

New Total: 28,561

Day #14

I realized that the suspects could not be suspects if the sleuth did not meet them in a previous scene. So I am writing the scenes. I do not care that they are improbable. If the suspect is sort of crazy than his reason for wanting someone dead can be an insane reason. As long as he thinks it is a reason than he has a motive.

Motive plus opportunity, isn’t that what they say on the cop shows?

I realize that a lot of the characters I am creating are really off the deep end. From heredity, drugs and alcohol, or childhood trauma. Running the gamut from mildly obsessive to criminally insane to multiple personalities. A novel of damaged humanity. How sweet.

I LOVE FICTION. Why have I been fixated on memoir? Take out the “I” and I am free to create.

OK
Wrote 1695 words.

New total: 26,783

BROKE THE HALF-WAY MARK!!!!

From Comedy Central… No: from my computer.

I was going to take it easy, begin writing later in the day, but I had two dreams that I wanted to write about and incorporate into my novel.

Dreams are important to my main character—she believes that her dead father communicates with her through her dreams and helps her solve puzzles and crime mysteries. So—In my first dream a number of people are seated in a circle and the ceiling opens up and they are sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

In my second dream, I am given the opportunity to have a table at a farmer’s market, but I have to buy the produce that I sell at the A & P.

Don’t make sense, but now they are the dreams of my protagonist, and she can deal with interpreting them!

I remember now—if I write first thing in the morning it all flows so much easier. BUT. I am a morning person. EVERYTHING I do in the morning is easier than anything I try to do later. The morning is the perfect time for : writing/ painting/exercising—even cleaning. BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE MORNING EACH DAY. There is only one “first thing in the morning” thing. So decisions must be made. Attention must be paid. Thank you Arthur Miller.

I have also learned that I can feel lousy and still write. In fact, it takes my mind off feeling lousy. I did not know that. I thought I had to feel good to do my creative work. Now I know I do not. Have to feel good that is. Weird sort of revelation.

I also thought that my work area could not be messy if I wanted to be creative. That is so not true. It would be nice not to have the piles of paper on the floor, but they have become irrelevant to my task. That is weird too.

So—I can be a writer even though I am sick and my workplace is messy. I can be a sick messy writer. Is that encouraging?

1669 words, without adding any new scenes, just “deepening.”

New total: 25,088

MORE than half way to goal. Wow. And only day #13.

Day #12

Hard today. Headache. Part of whatever weirdo viral fluey stomach fluey thingy I have. I always get weird things. I never get normal colds. I always have strange symptoms that make the doctor sort of stare oddly at me. I must be from outer space. I must have a Martian virus. Or Venusian. I am not an earthling. I am feeling awful. And I have to write. And someone is running a leaf blower or lawn mower or some such noisy machine and it is making my headache worse. How am I supposed to write? What would John Steinbeck do?

John Steinbeck would write.

I have put parts of myself in two of the characters. Jam is myself younger and Cast is myself today.

Later: wrote 925 words. Have to take a break. Have to figure out what needs to be written next.
Adding to some of the scenes.
1375 I am exhausted.
Need a better timeline.

1715. Done.

For tomorrow: Have to get a sense of what I have written and what more needs to happen before the ending. Once I know what the scene is about I can write it, but I need more scene ideas now. Think I’ll make a little chart for each character, showing how each one gets to the end. Have to keep up the suspense and add more red herrings that point to the wrong suspects.

Total Word Count: 23,419

The 11th Day of the 11th Month

So today I feel really lousy. Stomachache, headache, exhaustion. I would much rather be lying in bed watching MSNBC, my new addiction, than be at my computer. That said, I am still looking forward to doing my writing today. Have a couple of ideas I want to go with.

About 2 hours later: DONE. 1675 words.
New total: 21,705

Now I can go back to bed. Hello Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman.

But first I have to go to the NaNoWriMo site and enter my new total. I am getting close to the halfway mark of 25,000 words and it is only the 11th. Right on target.

Day #10

Started to write at 8 AM
It is not quite 9 and I have over 1000 words written.

Just think of a scene and write.

I am learning so much about writing a novel. Just by doing this!

I am also realizing that I can write 500 words in a half hour. 2000 words in 2 hours. First Draft Ville, of course, but still—What does this tell me about my writing life going forward? That I can write and do other things too. Oh my.

Later; It’s 10 AM and I have written 2156 words. In one way I could just keep going on, but you know I AM DONE FOR THE DAY.

New Total: 19,967 Oh, come on—go back and write 33 more words and make it 20,000!

I did it! Quoted a whole stanza of Shakespeare instead of just the one line I had used and got up to 20,030!

My FIRST WEEK of NaNoWriMo

Friday October 31, 2008 3:30PM


HI Everyone. Here is my journal about my experience doing NaNoWriMo. This stands for National Novel Writing Month, a world-wide endeavor with folks as far away as Australia doing just that: writing a novel of 50,000 words during the month of November!


To prep for the experience, I have gotten a piece of software called StoryMill and I have actually spent the time over the last two days figuring out how to use it. This is very good for me, since I usually get a bit scared with new software and have a hard time sitting down to learn it. But the pressure of the deadline really helped. So far I like using it too.

The book by the founder of NaNoWriMo, Chris Baty, called “No Plot, No Problem” recommends that you stock pile chocolate and other intense snack foods to help you on your writing journey. I have a love/hate relationship with chocolate, but for my birthday my sweetie got me a pound of dark chocolate from an on-line company called “Dan’s”—so at least I am set with that! (That is not my only present, btw—she also bought me a package of 10 Kinesis classes, so I guess that will help counter the effects of the chocolate!)

Here is what I believe I will be writing about, although it may certainly change:
The title is “Nothing Comes to Mind” (which is exactly what it says)

The story deals with the murder of Sylvia Barnsley, a Weight Watcher’s lecturer and pro-life advocate.
Other characters are: Castalia Marsh (Cast)—epidemiologist with a cat named Pan, short for Pandemic; she is also (sometimes) clairvoyant and is able to find lost objects
Joy Anita Morales—Jams for short—WW member and newly pregnant
Rochelle Steinman—anorexic social worker who does intake at Planned Parenthood
Renee Sunshine—Volunteer at Right to Life Organization; bright red curly wig and paisley head scarf
Edwin “Georgie” Hernandez—Jams’ fiancée, and her baby-daddy

Not every character is what you think she/he is.

My plan is to get up early tomorrow morning and write until I reach 2,000 words and then go to a crafts fair.

We will see what happens!

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Saturday November 1, 2008
6:09 Am

Starting!

Progress: 6:46—853 words
15 minute break
7;00 back
7:25—hit 1667 words
An hour and 16 minutes.
At 7:38: 2000 words

It took me about an hour and a half to write 2000 words. Instead of taking over my life, this is an activity that is highly doable. The only problem I can see is that when something is too easy I lose interest. Gotta watch that. But also, if I can get up at 6AM and have 2000 words written by 7:38—why can’t I do that in my regular life???


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Sunday November 2, 2008

6:45 AM start
Stopped for breakfast at 7:30—697 words
Resumed at 8:25
At 9—1240 words
Break
Back at 9:10
9:30—1684
Harder today because: I did not start as early
It is my birthday
I haven’t got such a clearly defined scene in my head to write.

Finished at 9:48.

So—about 2 hours, if you factor in the breaks.

I am happy with my progress so far. Just decide on a scene and then write it. Similar to writing morning pages. Don’t read it over or change anything. Just read over the last paragraph written to figure out where to pick up again.

StoryMIll is working out very well.
What I like about it: Organizes scenes and lets you label them as to which chapters they will appear in. And the labels can be changed to easily move the scenes around.
- Has a progress meter that keeps track of your word count for each writing session and also for your project as a whole (although some bug in the software keeps the project goal at 100,000 words even though I keep trying to change it to 50,000. I figure the universe is telling me that I will be writing more after Nov.30!)
-- Has a place for research, so you can place info to be used and also you can paste website url’s
--provides a very organized place to put all kinds of notes, tasks, etc.

I always used notebooks for my notes, but this is really quite user friendly and definitely worth the time to figure out how to work it.


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Day #3: Monday November 3, 2008
6:53 AM. I have been up for an hour, but I am having a hard time settling down to write. … See? I just had to get up and change the page from October to November on my “Cat Lovers Against the Bomb” calendar. Now I am back. And I am thinking more about breakfast than about writing. Which scene/character should I work on?
Update my Netflix queue
Check out Salon.com
Be distracted by Obama e-mail
Oh! I didn’t download the material from my flash drive onto my desk top. Have to do that now—from yesterday’s write-in. I did some writing at the write-in. No one seemed up for any exercises, but we (5 women, including one mother-daughter pair) sat around and talked a bit about we were writing. Someone asked if “zombified” was a word and we decided it must be. Exchanged contact info. Had a chai latte. Special treat for my birthday instead of just regular old tea. Wrote about 300 words.

Here’s a blurb about my novel:

This novel—working title “Nothing Comes to Mind--has to do with a murder--maybe more than one; Planned Parenthood; Right-to-Lifers; an anorexic social worker with a traumatic childhood employed by Planned Parenthood to counsel women having abortions; an epidemiologist with a cat named Pan (for Pandemic) who is also a Weight Watchers member and has a contract with Planned Parenthood to study women having abortions; a Weight Watchers leader who is also a member of “Focus on the Family” and counsels women against abortions; a pregnant Weight Watchers member with an abusive fiancée; two characters who are really the same character, and, perhaps, a swerving van whose driver is no longer alive. I know who the victim is, but as of right now I have a long list of possible murderers. Stay tuned.

7:05—Began writing
7:10—Stopped for breakfast
9:15---1826 words written
9:25—the software pinged with the sound of glass to let me know I had reached 2000 words. My total right now is 6569. I am doing well! Must go enter it on the website.

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Tuesday November 4, 2008

A different plan of attack today: ELECTION DAY
Got up early to go and vote. My district is minuscule, so there was no line to speak of, just 3 people in front of us. I was #96, which is a good turn out by 7:30. One woman in front of me was wearing a silk scarf imprinted with the American flag. Hmmm. Wonder what that signified.

Anyway, my plan was to vote and then to have the phone call, and then to write in the afternoon. I started to listen to the weekly radio broadcast on the NaNoWriMo site—and I was excited to find that they had used my voice! They had asked folks to record themselves saying why they were doing the writing, and I figured out how to use GarageBand to create an MP3 file and attach it to an e-mail. This is all so far-out for me. I am not used to cozying-up to technology, but I guess I need to re-think my self-image. I seem to be able to handle tech stuff pretty well and not be too intimidated to persevere and do what I want to do.

Anyway, after listening I got motivated to start writing. It is 9AM and I have written 179 of the 2273 words I plan to write today. I have increased my daily goal because if I do that amount I will finish before we go away for a week on 11/23. I can easily write while I am away, but wouldn’t it be nice to know that I am finished and don’t have to? Or that what I write is just adding to the first draft, which is what I expect to have at the end of all of this. It might need more than 50,000 words to complete, but we’ll see.

I will either continue writing now, or go to the Panera café and meet with another writer after lunch and do the writing then.

Have to stop this journaling—the word count here doesn’t count!!!!

1:40 PM Reached my 2273 word count for the day.
Total now: 9068


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Wednesday November 5, 2008

A new day in a new world.

At 1:40 PM yesterday I reached my 2273 word count for the day.
Total now: 9068

And at 11 PM the country reached its goal—I was watching Jon Stewart as he said, “It is 11 o’clock and-----Obama is the next President!” Guess that was when the polls on the West coast closed, giving him the 55 electoral college votes from CA, along with Oregon and (thank you Jen) Washington, putting him over the 270. And the rest is history. Really. By the way, I made phone calls over the last month to the battleground states of Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico—all of which went for Obama. So thank you, me, for doing my part!

And now: to the writing.

It is 10:10. Have to stop being a news junkie and get to work.
No, actually, I think I will read the NYTimes and our local paper The Journal News first, then get to work!

Is it really only day #5 of NaNoWriMo? I feel like I have been doing this for a very long time.

Biggest challenge for me today: I am soooo tired. Stayed up way too late. But I have to do this anyway. Let’s see what happens if I follow Nike’s phrase and JUST DO IT

(Later) I have finished 1202 of the 2273. I need a break. I can’t believe I can actually write when I am this tired. Amazing.

FINALLY FINISHED. HARD TODAY. BUT DID IT.

Grand total: 11,099.

Part of my problem is also that I need to plan some more scenes. Once I have a sense of the scene I can write it, but I have to think of some more scenes now!


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Thursday November 6, 2008

Every day is different. Profound. But seriously, I started the day by reading the NYT and got an idea for an essay that I had to write. The idea actually was related also to a post that I wrote on our message board in response to Karen, thinking about what this election brought up for me. And then Karen’s response to that response made me think more about it. So I spent about 2 and a half hours writing the essay this morning and sent it off to Divine Caroline. Haven’t heard back yet, but I will post a link when they publish it. BTW, I knew I had to write this essay because I got all tingly. My fingers tingled, like they wanted to write it. Like they were already writing it and I had to just go along.

Now I am back to my much less tingle-producing novel.

Made a sort of diagram of the characters and how they are all connected. If the novel is really 50,000 words, than I am about 1/5 done. But this is the hard part now. Figuring out how to keep it going. Realizing that a novel is more than just a beginning and an end. There is this vast area in the middle, where you have to figure out how to go in a lot of different directions so as to not go straight to the ending. At least that is how it appears to me at the moment. I have to hold back all the info I know about who is who and what will happen and lead each character through a little maze where s/he can get lost in a unique way. Well, we shall see.

I have been spending a little “research” time on various sites. Have to get back to actually writing.

Later:
I have 1100 words written. Half of what I need for the day. But if you add that to the 1400 I wrote for my Divine Caroline essay. . . Hmm. I think I will try to get up to my original daily goal of 1667 and call it a day. Call it a GOOD day.

So, I got up to 1667.

My grand total is 12,723. WHEW!

I do need to spend time tomorrow with more outlining.

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Friday November 7, 2008

9:40

This is the hard part. Filling it all in. I have not really been able to outline more scenes as I had hoped to do.

What I did figure out was the ending—I want it to be one of those heart-in-the-throat sort of chapters, where the protagonist figures out who the murderer is, but not in enough time to prevent her/him from possibly committing another murder—so there is this amazing race to try and save the potential victim. The potential victim has part of the information, but does not connect the pieces of information, so that the murderer feels the need to do away with him before he puts it all together. Screeching tires, swerving vehicles in rush hour traffic on the Taconic Parkway. Only I know how it all ends—a surprise.

10:40---1176 words. Need a break.

11:30 Got up to 1750 words. I CAN”T WRITE ANYMORE TODAY.

14,473 TOTAL (it may be a bit more.)

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Saturday November 8, 2008

Planned to go to a write-in this afternoon, so I only wrote for about a half hour in the morning.

Although this is the oddest sort of writing that I have ever done—just writing and counting, not rereading or agonizing—I am finding the creative ideas are really flowing. I thought of 3 things I wanted to write about as I was showering—and I had to run to my office and write them down with the towel still around me!

The write-in was fun, but I now know why social interaction is the bane of a writer’s life. Lots of talk, lots of sharing….but only a few hundred words written. But I really enjoyed talking to the 2 women who showed up. Julian is 17 and this is her 4th time writing a novel like this. She is being home-schooled by her mom Robin, who looks like an old hippie and is doing NaNoWriMo for the second time. You just don’t usually meet out of the mainstream people like them in Westchester where I live. In Taos, maybe, but not in Yorktown Hts.

Anyway, I have a total right now of 1167. That is about 500 short of my absolute daily minimum. But it is 5:30 and I have a glass of red wine near me (not too near, I DO NOT DO LIQUIDS near my computer. It’s a long story, and a wet one….) Anyway, there’s the glass of wine. And here I am.

Maybe write just for another half hour. YES WE CAN.

And I did it. Did my 1667

Total Now: 16,140

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Sunday November 9, 2008

Because I have to write so much, I have discovered that I need to use everything that I notice in my life. For example, yesterday I went to the farmer’s market and picked up a recipe for a casserole of greens and potatoes. Reading over the ingredient list, I discovered: “2 cups sliced opinions.” What a great typo! I knew that I had to use this someplace in my writing, and I will. Because I HAVE to use everything or I will not meet my goal. And having to fit in that recipe ingredient is a fun exercise as well.

I plan to write in the morning today, because that is really my best time. There is another write-in this afternoon at a coffee house in Peekskill. But I am getting smart. I will go and hang out and talk and drink tea and whatever writing I get done will be gravy, since I will have already met my daily word goal!
Oh, and I decided that as soon as I get a chance, maybe later today or tomorrow, I will set up a new blog that is just related to my NaNoWriMo writing. It will basically be this journal that I have been writing in a document on my desk and posting each day to our message board. But I think it deserves its own blog as
well. Hope I can figure out how to do that!

Total before the write-in: 17,811

Skipped the write-in—since the weather was so nice we decided it was the right Sunday afternoon to take in the lawn and porch furniture. Glad I did the writing in the AM. Make hay when the sun shines--or word counts when you have the opportunity. Or something!