Do A Little Dance. Or a really big dance because I just finished a novel!! 50,000 words in 30 days! It's 3:00am and I really wish someone was awake that I could jump up and down and scream with. My modified, solo celebration includes a handful of animal crackers and sleep (blessed sleep)...But, dude, I wrote a NOVEL. How cool is that?...

I Inch Closer. 941 words left. [[grin]]

Almost Done! 1308 words left to go. I'm not going to sleep until I'm done. It's only 1308 words. Write, Val, write!

Exhausted. I'm at 46,006 words right now. I really wanted to crank out another 500 or 1k or so tonight, but I just can't do it. My nose is all stopped up and my body aches. Stupid cold. I have high hopes of finishing tomorrow night rather than on Saturday night. It's only 3,994 words (which I'm perfectly capable of writing in a single day), but we'll see what happens. I've also been listening to the same three songs over and over again, they've managed to gel in my mind as the perfect writing music...for tonight, anyway.

Caught Up. My word count is now 44,105. And now, I can go to sleep. Or I can stay up for awhile longer and mindlessly surf the internet...

Four Days Left. And, Dude, I just wasted an entire hour at the website of the guy who played Wesley Crusher (on Star Trek:The Next Generation). He's actually kind of cool. Anyway, I'm chugging away--skipped out on about a thousand words yesterday because I got stranded at the house I was babysitting at (the roads were bad), but I'm making it up now. Encouraging Thought: My mom will force me to sit and write if I'm not at the right word count tomorrow when I go home for Thanksgiving...

Fried Brain. I'm done for the night (sleep might be a good thing, especially when you wear contacts and have to be at the first service for church tomorrow). So, my final word count is 35,624... And I'm still planning on cranking out those 2300 words later today.

Progress. Since I just realized that my roommate called me eight hours ago saying that she was on her way home and I haven't heard from her since, and possessing a rather vivid imagination and an active worrying streak, I have just paged her. Deciding that sitting, staring into space isn't going to help and that I'm not going to be able to sleep, I've decided to write. Productivity is a good thing. I have now dashed across the 35k line and am sprinting down the last 15k. The finish line is in sight (but not for tonight- what kind of powerhouse do you think I am?)

Latest Word Count. 34,650 words which means I am 69.3% done. Only 15,350 more to go and I have seven days left. Looks like I'm actually going to make it.

Procrastination. Today's procrastination attempts included making myself two cups of hot cider (from a packet, not the real thing) and about eight cups of tea; going to the bathroom at least twice for every cup I drank; researching cremation (hey, it had to do with my novel at least); staring into the distance thinking of various questions my roommate could answer for me (she did take that death & dying course last semester); deciding that I don't particularly care for MS Word or even MS Office in general and switching (on the recommendation of another NaNoWriMo participant) to OpenOffice.org (or Ooo1.01 as they persist in calling it) an open-source office suite (which so far I rather enjoy).

Productivity. I did sit down though and have my entire word count cranked out before 8pm. I rewarded myself with another cup of tea, a bag of buttery popcorn, eight saltines, and allowing myself to watch Pretty Woman. As it is now almost midnight (and this is the first opportunity I have had in ages to actually go to bed reasonably early), I might want to be done for the rest of the night. But probably not.

Home Stretch. I'm at 32,204 words which meanse I have 17,796 more to go (in eight days!). I can do that though. As long as I discipline myself to sit down and write, I can crank out the 2300 words I need a day to finish this novel. Anyway, with those almost 18k words I have to finsih up Mon and Tues and maybe Wed morning (my novel spans a week in my main character's life and it started Wed eve, so depending on how it goes I might cover the next Wed's am) and an epilogue; oh, and flesh out the prologue. [[shrug]] It's going well. I'll definitely finish it (especially if I manage to crank out more than the minimum word requirement tomorrow and Sunday)...

Like Pulling Teeth. That's what writing was today. I persevered though and managed to hit my target word count plus 59 extra words (for a total of 27,629 words). I am now 55.258% done with ...And You're The Only One Who Knows (the latest title which I enjoy even though it is rather long). In other news, I must have the most supportive Mom in the entire world. Oh, and Thin Mints are great rewards when you hit your word count...

Halfway. And Then Some. So, I hit 25k about 90 minutes ago. My official word count is 25,530...I should have hit that on Sat/Sun, but I went out both days and wasn't productive (I had a blast though). I can still finish on time writing a little over 2k a day (which isn't actually that hard to do when I actually sit down to write). I can't wait to be done with this so I can rework it. I glanced through it today and noticed a lot of glaring holes. I actually like my story it's just not anywhere close to presentable at the moment...

Social Obligations. Okay, my writing time tonight just dropped to nil...I just agreed to escort my cousin and three of his friends to the movies tonight. Fortunately, I am now at 21,190 words. So, I'm thinking that between now and the bus ride to the house of the girl I mentor I'll be able to crank out another 1000 words (I hope, I hope, I hope). I might be able to get another five to six hundred words between the time that I get picked up and the time we're at the theatre. I won't be home until 12:30am at the best. So, I'll type up whatever I wrote out longhand, sleep (sleep? what's sleep?) and crank out another couple thousand in the morning. I, at least, know what my plot is doing right now (the abusive mom is dying and her daughters have to deal with it. die, abusive mom! die!), so I don't have to worry about waiting for inspiration to strike.

20k...And Going Strong. My current word count is 20, 368! Of course, I'm supposed to be at 25k by the end of today (its the halfway mark of the month!), but whatever. I'm much farther along than the 17k I started with this morning. I'll be completely caught up by the end of this weekend (well, hopefully, my social life has decided to reinsert itself into my time). I'm actually planning on hitting 25k before I go to bed tonight. And why not? I didn't work today and I'm all alone in the house. Well, off I go. Onward with the writing!!

Over 10k! Okay, so I am only over by 44 words--over is over, don't quibble about technicalities. And I am officially 1/5th of the way through my novel. *grin* I've got a really hard scene to write next (Reese and her sister were abused as children and they're discussing it), so I'm glad that I get to be done for the night. I have to be at that conference at church tomorrow, so who knows how much my word count will increase tomorrow...Since, I've been truckin' along at about 2k words/day since I scrapped my first attempt and started again; I should (hopefully) have another 10k words in five more days. Hmm, we'll see.

In a shameless attempt to boost my word count (I fell behind yesterday), I have had my male lead (Jedediah) repeat an almost verbatim account of a road trip that one of my friends took a couple summers back and told me about on Saturday (that was good for 588 extra words-that I made tie in with the story line). Today, my female lead (Reese) had a karaoke moment on her college campus and sung almost all of the lyrics to "Hey Mickey" (that scene was worth an additional 516 words). Gotta love the randomness. Hey, it all ties in with the plot...so it's legit padding. *wink*

Starting Over. Yeah, I wrote 3,000+ words that weren't going to go anywhere. Honestly, there was nothing I could do, I swear. So, I trashed them. And started again (that was on Sunday). Much of the same plot, but I changed some fundamental details about them both--so I'm much happier now. I also pilfered everything that was able to transfer from one story to the other. I'm having a blast, rocking it out with the writing.

Day One. I just finished my word quota for the day (I have to write 1,667 words per day to hit 50k in thirty days...I made it to 1,683 just now: Go me!) I'm remembering how warped my sense of humor is and how much more warped it sounds on paper. Oh well--after thirty days I can edit to my heart's content. Hey, this reminds me of Finding Forrester when Forrester tells Jamal to just write. Don't think, write. If any movie gets me in the mood for writing it is that one...I bet I watch it more than a couple times this month...