Son of Cold

Return of Cold wasn't going to be a strong enough title, so I went for the next level. What I thought was getting better instead got much much worse, resulting in a croaky Elly who sounded very much like a frog and spent four days lying on the couch alternately watching GTA San Andreas being played, Miami Vice on DVD, and Buffy on DVD. As well as some interspersed episodes of So Graham Norton on video.

Unfortunately, most laugh out loud comedies were out because when I started to laugh, it resulted in a paralyzing coughing fit that then lasted the next few minutes. I hate being sick. So, Monday after being sick for five days, I caved and called the doctor and had her call in antibiotics, which I also hate. Lesser of two evils.

So, now I'm back at work and drugged. And severely behind on my word count.

I did my work on Thursday, though I don't remember what the word count was. Sunday I again did some work, though I only hit 1500ish, not even the shorter goal. Which brings us to 20,500 or there abouts.

Yesterday was the half way point, meaning that I should've been at 25,000. Obviously, not so much. I am not, however, far enough behind that I've lost hope. Just far enough behind to be annoyed.

On the other hand, at 20K, I'm only at the end of chapter 4. With a 20 chapter projection, at the apparent average of 5K a chapter, that'd put us up at around 100K for final product. Now, before Diana cries, that's first draft length. I think there's some stuff in there that in the long run I'll decide to whack out. Plus, the scenes are rambling, I think. Or at least I feel like they're rambling a little. But I want to get the whole thing done and then mess around with pacing afterwards. I might be leading a little too much, I can't tell. Some of the stuff might be there because I need to know what happens and the reader really doesn't but since I didn't outline, it's getting written anyway. We'll see in the end.

I did write the big first arc climax scene(s) on Thursday though, so that was kind of nice. They need a ton of work, but that's fine by me. They'll get it when it's their turn.

So. For further projections:

If I want to finish up the whole shooting match by the end of the month I now need to step it up to almost 5000 words a day. 4964 to be exact. Not that it couldn't happen, but I don't think it's likely to in all honesty.

For my NaNoWriMo goal, I need to do 2107 a day. That I think is doable.

Things I've learned about myself so far, though, include that I don't write well on weekends. There's too much going on at my house for me to be able to get much done. We have people over a lot, so there are generally guests, and I tend to feel rude if I'm writing off in a corner in the office when the husband is entertaining. It's a southern thing, I think. Not that I haven't done it, there've been a couple nights during the week when we've had people over that I've just gone in for an hour and done my words for the night and then come out. But, I don't think I get the high return there, I cruise through what I need to and quit. So, in the future, I should probably not plan on getting in writing on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is okay because we tend to have a chunk of the day at home alone before people come over.

So far, apart from the day of waffle about where I was going next in my bridging scenes, the looser outline has worked fine. So I might be able to back off a little on my prewriting anxiety and go with the flow a little more as long as I know where I'm flowing to next. Though, I do have a big thing coming up that I have no idea how I'm going to do. It could be fun to figure out, I might freak out. We'll see in the next day or so.

I don't write much when I'm sick. This is where the not planning writing on weekends will save my bacon in the long run, I think. If something comes up during the week where it's just not happening, I have the option of making up the words on the weekend. Though, there's a chance that that's just enough rope to hang myself with.

I'm apparently very motivated by numbers and competition. So, I should try and find someone else who's going to be a quick burn writer so that we can pit ourselves against each other in a battle to the finish line. I haven't found one yet. Of the 6 other people that I started NaNoWriMo with, all but two have at this point dropped out (I think). The numbers thing has helped, though. There have been several days that I think if I wasn't pushing for NaNoWriMo I would've gotten nothing done.

Tonight, I'm going to try and get in a chunk. That may depend on how badly the heater blew things all over the house today, however, as my husband had to come and stay up at my office and let the house air out. A great deal of vacuuming might be in my future.