Saturday, November 6, 2010

NaNoWriMo: day 5

I achieved a major goal today in my NaNoWriMo word count. I didn't set out to reach this goal - but I did, nonetheless. (Now, if I were writing this in my novel, I may have chosen to type 'none the less' rather than 'nonetheless' since one gives me a three word count and the other only gives me one. But I digress.)

I passed the 10k mark! I met with writing friends Alexander and Jenny at a cafe tonight. Deb was going to join us, but was unable to make it. There were many college students there, studying for mid-terms and writing papers - and I may have spied a few other NaNoWriters - but I wasn't sure, so I didn't approach them.

My final word count for Friday, November 5th was 10,771.

Yay! Saturday's goal is 10,000 words - so I could let a day skate by with writing nothing and still be ahead. Which I won't do. I know that on the travel to and from the Night of Writing Dangerously in San Francisco days, I will fall behind. So getting ahead now is a good thing. It gives me flexibility.

The biggest news from today, though, is that I like my story so far. I like where the characters are guiding me and I think it's another workable story and could become a published novel - after some editing, of course. It's not quite going where I thought it might in terms of plot - but that's okay. The setting I chose ahead of time - at least as a starting place - and that has stayed true. Parts of the story may take place in other places - which may or may not show up as scenes in the novel; they may just be talked about as having been there. I don't really know where it's all headed - and I think probably not where I thought at the outset.

And, see, that is the beauty of my method. Some people plot and plan and have outlines and character studies. Which is great. But I don't - and it works for me. I go with the characters and when, like tonight, I can get into that flow - it is an amazing journey. Truly I was channeling the characters tonight and my fingers flew. It was a great feeling and I like a lot of what I wrote (I think; I didn't go back and read any of it - but I remember being pleased with dialogue and scenes and such).

Yes. This is working.
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