Thursday, November 20, 2014

NaNoWriMo Update from the Writing Retreat


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It was an interesting day. I was woken up early by several dogs singing nearby. I do mean singing. There was one dog with a very melodic voice. And several other dogs barking in reply. But it sounded like a singing dog with a backup bark chorus.

My muse then took that opportunity to appear with another piece of the novel. Either that or it was the whales playing straight out from where I'm staying calling me to watch them. As I started writing I looked out the windows and saw a spout. Then another spout, a few more. I saw them arch in the water as the waves hit the Twin Rocks and sprayed. When they quieted my attention turned back to the computer and I typed. And typed.

Until I hit the energy wall and had to go back to sleep. I'd only had about four and a half hours at that time. So I went back to bed and didn't get up again until about 12:30. The tide was heading back out, so I made brunch, ate, changed out of my pajamas into beach walking clothes.

I walked on the beach for an hour. I watched a seagull struggle with a live crab for a while, while a companion seagull kept potential seagull thieves away. It took a while, but the seagull won the war. The crab appeared to get in several good jabs and the seagull probably has scars. But the seagull won the battle. The tide came up and tried to steal the carcass away, but the bird grabbed it and dragged the heavy, now water laden body up onto the sand, not being able to get much height in its flight, but enough to save its meal.

I've been writing off and on throughout the rest of the day. Taking meal breaks, stretching breaks, and other bodily function breaks.

I did manage to get in a lot of words today. The story is making progress, though it's not surprising some of what is happening in the story. I still don't quite know exactly what the big mystery is, but it is getting closer. I have some significant hints, but a bunch of details are missing. Even the characters are wondering and they are doing their research to see who else is involved and why.

Today I wrote 4,552 words. I decreased my deficit in half, from 7000 words to 3,400.  My current word count is 28,251.

It also started raining tonight, after it got dark. They are predicting a lot of rain tomorrow, so I probably won't go for a long walk, giving me more time to write.

My goal for tomorrow is to be 100% caught up. And if luck and my muse are on my side, hopefully I will again be ahead in my word count. The words are coming a little slower than I'd like, but they came. And I am happy with what I wrote today.

One more full day of writing (Thursday), some writing time at home on Friday, and several hours of writing on Saturday.

I've got this.
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