Update

I had hoped to get some more writing done last night, but I didn't get a chance. I had to be up early today, and I forgot about it until a couple hours after I should have gone to bed. So, to make up for it, I just did some writing now. For some reason, I seem to be at my creative best in the wee hours of the morning. But at this point in the novel, I'm still in territory that I've firmly fleshed out in my mind, so getting the creative juices flowing was no problem.

My word count is up to over 6,000 words now, which seems like a good pace. If I can keep it up, I should have 50,000 words banged out before I know it. I plan on trying for another 2,000 words tonight, but we'll see what happens.

Stephen King, in his book On Writing, suggested that you should write three pages every day. I've felt a little guilty that I haven't done anything approaching that up till now. But so far, I've knocked out 11 pages in about three days, so it looks like I'm finally following his advice. Let's hope I can keep this up.

I paused in my writing about halfway through Chapter Three. I hope to at least finish that chapter tonight, and maybe get started on Chapter Four. I'm still working on ideas that have been percolating for a while now. The details get more and more vague somewhere around Chapter 5, but I know where I'm going with the story, even if I'm not fully sure how to get there yet. However, the whole point of this National Novel Writing Month exercise is just to write away, so I'm not too worried.

The only thing at this point that could get me worried is if I start slacking off. That's part of the reason why I'm writing these blogs, to keep myself motivated. If I don't follow through with this, I'll have documented evidence of my laziness right here where anyone can see it. The thought of the shame that will cause should help keep me going.

Finishing Chapter Three should be a breeze. As I said, I've had the whole thing mapped out in my head for months, so I know exactly where I'm going with this section of the story and how I want to get there. After a while, the road gets a bit rougher, but I've marked out most of the landmarks in my head, so I at least know where I'm going. I'm going to stop with the road metaphor here before I beat it to death.

So, 6,000 words down, 44,000 to go. And a little under four weeks to do it in. This is going to be interesting.

-E. Maxfield Moen