Nanowrimo

Okay, Day 1? Excellent. I'm cheating, by the way. The rules say you start with 0 words on November 1 and by midnight on November 30, you've written 50,000 completely new words. Voila, a novel in a month. Like RJ Anderson and Maggie Stiefvater, I simply can't do that. I can write a lot of words, yes, but they are the wrong ones, and they lead to destroying a decent idea. On the other hand, Nano is very good for general writing enthusiasm and dedication, so last time I did it, I used it to finish a novel. (I didn't quite get the thing done during that time, but it was close.) I'm doing that again this year. I don't know how many new words I wrote today because I'm adding in already-written scenes to a clean file and adding new scenes as well as transitions and some revision as I go. But I'm excited. Like, I wish I could keep working on this straight through until it's done, but, funny thing, my family needs to eat more than just Halloween candy (of which they have consumed a scary amount already). I'm getting close to the point where everything I write will be completely new material, but I feel like I've bulked up the earlier part of the book so that things will make sense now. Like, maybe this time it will be a real first draft and not just a proto draft/pile of words, and I can show it to someone.

This is one of the crazy things about writing. You get excited and want to tell total strangers in the grocery store that it's going well, thank you. I only have to research details of elk bow hunting, and order a water testing kit to try out in the river, and figure out a few more mean things a group of spoiled teenagers could do! And I wish I could hug my poor characters, because I'm making them go through terrible things. And people slowly back away from you...

Um. Yes. Forcing myself off now to make dinner that does NOT involve candy. But you see, the sooner this is done, the more sane I will be. Right?