Day 16

Well, it took me 12 days of writing to get 10,000 words down. Only 4 to get the next 5,000. The writing is definitely getting faster. I periodically check my word count and I'm finding that two or three hundred words go by pretty quickly now, whereas when I first started, I had to really wrack my brain to get 500 words out at a time.

To be sure, a lot of this comes from the imperative to get words on the page, any words, and some aren't all that great. At first, I caved in to my old habit of reworking everything I had done in the previous session before I started looking at putting in new material. Now, I'm just pressing forward (and some backwards, and sideways--this is becoming a very non-linear writing experience). There are several parts I've written that, due to subtle shifts in the plot direction, are going to need to be reworked, but I'm leaving them in and alone for now. Editing is what December is for. For November, once a word is on the page, it's on, and time to move on to the next word. And the next.

I started this project with the intention of sharing excerpts and thoughts on the process every day with you. However, I'm finding it hard enough to get the NaNo writing done, as you can tell by the fact that I am still 12,000 words behind. I'm still trying to keep up with the blogging of the experience and all, but the raw writing is going to take priority. After I get a few things cleaned up with this, I'll post some key scenes through December, all in order, so you all can read what's been going on.