I Made It Through Week Two

Frenetic. Work, friends, house hunting, daily word count plus the extra needed to try to make 30,000 by Friday made it a week of late nights and lots of coffee. I didn’t make 30,000 words by Friday, which has made me angry at myself. However, the pre-halfway point is always the hardest week. Every 1,000 words seem to add nothing to the overall word count. The trick is put the head down and grind on. I’m so glad this week is over.

I did have one very pleasant experience though: a revelation wrote itself. I’d been worrying over the plot twist that a particular character would introduce; I thought it wasn’t pivotal enough. I went to sleep thinking about it and dreamed that I’d worked out the problem and easily written the next 2000 words of the chapter. When I woke up, I couldn’t remember the solution and, of course, hadn’t actually written it. Frustrating. Working on the chapter later, however, my fingers typed out the twist automatically and the next 2000 words were a breeze. It was a genuine surprise. I think my subconscious is driving this thing. I’d be very happy if my subconscious continued driving it and could type this out while I slept.

Word count at the end of Week Two: 28,500 word territory.

The average word count statistic: a source of inspiration or stress?

Inspiration. The more I put in every day, the less I have to write every day. There’s a flaw in that logic somewhere, but I’m too tired to tease it out.

Any changes to your writing schedule/habits?

I check Tumblr after making the minimum word count, not before. Before, uh, doesn’t work.

Has your story taken any unexpected turns?

Not really. The revelation described above has jolted the storyline within the bounds I set for it. Everything’s still on track. (So it looks like Hong Kong won’t happen.)

What was the best thing you wrote this week? And the most frustrating passage you worked on?

Truthfully, the best thing is too rude to post here. However, I quite liked this passage:

This was the first time I’d been alone since arriving in the UK and I reveled in my solitude. The crush of the crowds didn’t bother me. What did was the rubbish: coke cans and plastic wrappers and tissues and takeout packaging collected in the gutters and spilled out of bins. The businesses which closed early had already left garbage bags by the kerb, and I knew come morning there would be seagulls ripping them open and scattering more rubbish through the streets. These streets were rivulets of garbage leading to islands of landfills dotted around the city and countryside. What didn’t go there would flow out to the sea through sewers and pipes, to slowly disintegrate in the salt and pollute the water.

I had to distract myself by looking at the old architecture of the buildings. I wasn’t here for rubbish, not anymore. This was supposed to be a strange kind of leisure.

Frustrating passage: approximately words 20,000 to 25,000.

Do any particular writing challenges present themselves this week?

Meaningfully incorporating ferrets into the story. Keeping up the tempo of the narration. Catching up the word count.

Hopes for next week:

I hope to sleep for more than five or six hours per night.

NaNo in a nutshell (Week Two):

I’m going to borrow a line from a wiser woman than me: "I made it through the wilderness."