November 23? Seriously?

How did it get to be Nov. 23 already?

No time to panic, must write. And write, and write, and write...

Oh yeah, lost track of what I was doing there for a minute.

So my idea is pretty well fleshed out, and I’ve been writing, but of course there are always 1,289 things that get in the way, from work and work and work to kids and school and everything else. So I’m actually okay with the progress I’ve been making.

Actually, the best thing that has come out of NaNo this year, for me, is the writing group we have started. Not sure if we will continue meeting after NaNo is done, but it has been really nice to get together and chat with other writers every Saturday afternoon. (Okay, so Saturday afternoon is not a great time to do it, but when WOULD be a good time?)

There are five of us that have been meeting each Saturday, mostly chatting about our story ideas and research progress and what not. It’s a bit of an eclectic group of people that I probably never would have met otherwise, let alone spent time getting to know. It’s been quite nice.

My story is advancing, though some of the details are hanging me up. For instance, my character is from Venezuela, but I don’t speak Spanish. So I’m struggling for some authenticity there.

I’m also working out the details of a fight between her and her husband, which I don’t want to be over the top and violent, but I want it to be clear that she and her husband are pretty well over. I’ll work it out, I’m just not there quite yet.

Let’s see, what else? The little girl’s name is not working for me at all. I’ve temporarily named her Dulcea, but I really don’t like it. Nothing brilliant has come up yet, though.

Time

What I really need now, as I sit in front of my computer screen on day four, is a 30 hour day. That way there would be enough time for everything I am crazy enough to get myself mixed up with, and maybe I could chat with my husband and hang out with my kids a little, too.

Sheesh.

So I'm thoroughly behind at this point, and time is gaining on me. But it is only day four, and it is Friday, so the plan is to spend today (and perhaps the weekend) catching up. Heck, maybe even getting ahead (lol!).

Off to steal the hour I have before my 2 p.m. appointment to sort out a scene with Elena...

Day two

It's 4 p.m. on day 2, and I'm at 1,200 words. OK, not where I'd like to be, but it's a start.

Yesterday was an insane first day -- I had a paper due by 11 p.m., and I had to write the county commission meeting and the editorial and and and...by the time I had chance to work on my novel, my creative juices (or at least the ones I use to write) were pretty well zapped.

So hopefully I'll have a little more energy left to right tonight...unless I start thinking about all of the things I have to do now...

WAY too early in the month to get discouraged. So I think I'll go see if I whip out a couple of hundred words before I leave work today.

My current excerpt:

“I heard the unmistakable sound of a baby crying on my front lawn,” Gina would tell people later, when the calls started coming, from the media hounds, the social workers, and every other interested party in the city of New York who looked her number up in the phone book.

But truth be told, Gina really couldn’t be sure what pulled her from the Harlequin she had unapologetically and completely immersed herself in and brought her outside in the midnight hours of that cold dark night.