Hitting 30,000

Last night, I wrote 4,000 words and officially hit 30,000 words for my overall NaNoWriMo total. That basically means that I have fewer than 20,000 words to go until I hit the magical number of 50,000. Like I wrote last week, it has become clear to me that the story will not be over at 50,000 words. My main characters just met. They just learned the other's last name. The conflict between them hasn't even begun. Which reminds me...what is the conflict again?

When I started the story, I had an idea of where the story was headed, and who the characters were, but then something crazy happened. My characters morphed and when I would go to write something, they would sit up on my shoulder and say "Ah, ah, ah, you didn't say the magic word." And by the time I did, they were like "Forget it, We're not doing that sh*t." So I had to change my plan, which now leaves me planless. I know a ton of crap about my characters in the past. It is the future that has me in a pickle.

I've read articles that say this is the pitfall of NaNoWriMo--too many "writers" writing by the seat of their pants. I've also read articles saying this is the awesome thing about NaNoWriMo (I don't have links to those articles, but I tell you I've read them!). This tells me that there are different ways to write, and ways that work best for some that would be disastrous for others (Yes, I know, duh!) . I don't know where I fall on that scale quite yet.