Day 4: Crawling
Dear Diary,
I'm crawling. That's the best way I can describe it. Walking and running are way beyond me at the moment. I'm still deeply feeling the loss of the first day, lagging by some 1,700 words.
I figure I need to write another 3,000 words by the end of today. And then I'll be okay. Already, I've got some 500 or 600, having draggedmy weary ass outta bed a lot earlier than I really would have liked. If I get on target, maybe then, I can start walking.
Let's hope so. While I can feel myself dropping into a rhythm of sorts, I also know this pace is delicately balanced and could dive at any moment. Tomorrow, for instance, I'm back at work. Who'd care to bet on how the word count survives that? Not me.
But it's not all bad. The manuscript is picking up nicely. I remember why it was stuck in the first place: a lot of bad action and stale characterisation. But a little time away, like in most relationships, has helped me approach the story with new insight. The characters flow much more in tune with their real selves and the action is sharp and a genuine consequence of their personalities and a culmination of the situation in which they find themselves. I'm happy with what I've written so far, and for those of you who know how sharply my inner critic bites, knows it says a lot. I'm four chapters in, and nearly four thousand words along. It could be a whole lot worse.
This is the fifth in a series of articles about NaNoWriMo. Read the last article here.
I'm crawling. That's the best way I can describe it. Walking and running are way beyond me at the moment. I'm still deeply feeling the loss of the first day, lagging by some 1,700 words.
I figure I need to write another 3,000 words by the end of today. And then I'll be okay. Already, I've got some 500 or 600, having draggedmy weary ass outta bed a lot earlier than I really would have liked. If I get on target, maybe then, I can start walking.
Let's hope so. While I can feel myself dropping into a rhythm of sorts, I also know this pace is delicately balanced and could dive at any moment. Tomorrow, for instance, I'm back at work. Who'd care to bet on how the word count survives that? Not me.
But it's not all bad. The manuscript is picking up nicely. I remember why it was stuck in the first place: a lot of bad action and stale characterisation. But a little time away, like in most relationships, has helped me approach the story with new insight. The characters flow much more in tune with their real selves and the action is sharp and a genuine consequence of their personalities and a culmination of the situation in which they find themselves. I'm happy with what I've written so far, and for those of you who know how sharply my inner critic bites, knows it says a lot. I'm four chapters in, and nearly four thousand words along. It could be a whole lot worse.
This is the fifth in a series of articles about NaNoWriMo. Read the last article here.
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