Word count 11/29

My word count for today is 47,809. I am 27 words ahead of the pace and only 2,191 from winning tomorrow. I am pretty relieved but I am disappointed in my novel and by the fact that I was unable to make my characters into heinous wastes of skin. They just plain refused to be horrible people. It was very frustrating. I'll have to work on them in the editing process.

Word count 11/28

Two more days left! My word count for today is 45,561, one more ahead of schedule. I am glad this is almost over. It has been extremely stressful this year. I'm exhausted.

Word count 11/27

Happy Thanksgiving! I didn't write yesterday because I was a day ahead. I did write tonight. My word count for the day is 43,379.

I sketched out the rest the story and will be following it to the end. It is a little too coincidental for my taste but I have to get it finished then fix it. There are also a couple of twists whose impact will also have to be fixed. The story didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it but I still think it is pretty good for coming with something out of whole cloth.

I can see the end now. I am 6,621 words away from winning. I don't want to jinx it.

Word count 11/25

Word count for today is 39,047. I made my goal today and am thinking that I may write more tonight, so I will hit 40,000 soon!

I decided to let my characters do whatever the hell they wanted. They were fighting me every step of the way and I had it!

***UPDATE***
I wrote more this evening, jumping a day ahead. My new word count is 41,140. I now have to start wrapping this book up before I have a nervous breakdown. Thursday is Thanksgiving and I don't know how busy I will be over the weekend so I really wanted to work ahead.

Word count 11/24

I had a really good day today. I used word sprints to get to my goal in a little over an hour!

Word count: 37,040 a little ahead of schedule. I wrote 2,565 words today.

I am feeling good, but last night I was unable to sleep. I was up until 4 a.m. I feel like I am in the manic stage of a manic-depressive episode and I know it is because of this novel. I am caught up now and I feel good about it, but this weekend was certainly a hair-raising experience. The word sprints are working and they are allowing me to not over think my novel, just to write it. I have a new direction one of the characters is going on and I think it is going to be interesting.

Word count 11/23

My word count for today is 34,475. I didn't have a 10,000 word weekend, but I had a 7,743 word weekend and I caught up with where I am supposed to be. So if I stay on track every day until the end of the month, then I will win.

I have been writing on my couch instead of being in my room downstairs. I really needed the change of pace. I am not sure where I will end up writing tomorrow, but the couch worked out well. I have had various and sundry dog and cats laying on me, helping me with my creative process. It has been nice.

One thing I did to facilitate meeting my overall word count goal was to make mini goals. I would say that in 30 minutes I want to write 500 words. This really helped me. I don't know why I didn't do it before.

Also, I let my characters off their tight leashes and they showed me a bit of what they were about. Last year when I was writing this, the story wrote itself because I didn't have a plot. I had a plot going into this and it has proved more difficult than I imagined it would be. So it is a live and learn situation. I am still having a problem with plot but I feel like I have identified what it is about and maybe I can fix it or work around it or live with it.

Plot and other terrible things

I have been thinking about plot and the creative process and I have realized that I have convinced myself that I am not a serious writer because my plots always run out of steam. If I have a really great idea for a book or a movie, I usually don't have enough plot to get it there. Because of my inability to come up with a plot I don't write. So it isn't a question of whether or not I can write. It is if I can come up with enough to get there. Because if you can't come up with enough, then it isn't a novel, it's called a short story.

Which brings me to my dilemma. I have figured out how to save my story so my main character, who I like, isn't the bad guy. I found a perfectly willing bad guy to take the fall. How do I get there now? I have the biggest block in my head. You can say that I am a block head. I just know that if I could get past the plot problems I always have then I could be a really great writer.

I am thinking that all writers must go through this. It is incredibly painful and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I read somewhere that Beethoven used to pour ice water on his head to stimulate his brain.

I will have a word count later and post it in a new post.