Here's another bit for you...

Here's an excerpt that comes close to the mid-beginning. It started out as just an amusing scene inspired by my own memories of learning to drive, and of course the need to explain why on earth she didn't just drive herself. It brings up a few points that will figure in more prominently later in the story.

“Do you want to drive for a while so I can get some rest?” Skeet asked.
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t?”
“I don’t know how to drive. You think if I could have driven myself, I would have gotten you involved?”
“But you build engines. I’ve seen you drive at the test tracks.”
“Those are all Tesla racers. You said yourself I haven’t been out of the compound in three years. Where would I drive to?”
“We have a test track.”
“I’ve never driven road cars.”
“It’s pretty much the same except you occasionally turn right and there’s less chance of electrocuting yourself.”
“You sure?”
“Do you see any big arcs of lightning headed our way?”
“Not that.”
“Do you want to be stuck here making the next great way for us to kill people, or do you want to get to Arizona?”
“What sort of question is that?”
“Well, we’ll make much better time if we can trade off driving instead of stopping for me to sleep. Here.” He pulled the car into the breakdown lane and set the brake. “Hop in the drivers seat.”
She walked around the back of the car to the left side while Skeet scooted over the center console and strapped himself in the passenger seat.
She fastened the harness. “Now what?”
“A street legal drives just like the racers. All your controls are in the same place.”
“The clutch is missing.”
“It’s an automatic. It shifts for you.”
“Weird.”
“They’re easier to drive.”
“Where are all the sensors?” Actually, she’d never driven with sensors before, but she had worked on the finished racers and knew enough to know there should be more than three sensor displays.
“You’ve got everything you need for what you’re doing. All you really need is the speedometer and the water level sensor. You’ve got a hydrogen sensor, but these cars don’t run out as long as they have water to split. Street legals are designed so any idiot can drive them.”
“Where does that leave me?”
“Driving. We’re on the highway. It’s just like racing. Everyone is going the same direction as you. You got no cross traffic, no oncoming cars. Only thing to watch for is the occasional guy passing you, and cars merging back on from the rest stations.”
“Then what do I do.”
“Stay out of their way.” With that and not another word of instruction, he leaned his head against the roll bar and fell asleep, leaving her to fend for herself.

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.