Word Count

In order to win NaNoWriMo, you have to write an average of 1,667 words each day. You end up staring at the word count more than you did as a student and were in danger of going over your word limit (which was always my problem) or staying far underneath it (which was one of my best friend's problem).

1,667 words isn't actually that much...if you can just keep writing and you don't trip yourself up by worrying whether the writing is fantastic. By just writing, it took me two hours to write 2,000 words. That includes a coffee break and several email/twitter/let me check my phone breaks. I feel good writing that...until I wonder whether they are 2,000 good words. In a fifteen minute, NaNoWriMo sprint, I wrote another 529 words.

My character is listening to Marta Topferova because I was listening to her as I wrote. I am not sure this is a good sign, but whatever. Tonight I know I will print out the 5 single spaced I have and read them over. I am going to do my best not to edit them. I just want to know what I've written, what facts I've laid down in fake-stone. How are these people I've created? (Really who are these people I've semi-created because, come on, they are a combination of me and random other people I know?)

Even in the first 2,500 words, my characters have surprised me. They are not who I thought they were. They don't live where I thought they would live. This is scary because I had a sense of how they would get from point A to point B, but now I don't know.

The good news is that I still have the urge to write. I'm going to take a little break, watch a little Hoarders, and make some tea. Then I am going back at it until dinner (p.s. what should I have for dinner?).

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A friend of mine says she likes reading this blog because it is like talking to me. If this is the case, I figure I could fill you in on some random thoughts that have popped up in my head. For example:
- Haruki Murakami! Why is your book, 1Q84, so long? I've only read 100 pages and I have 825 to go. Ah! ANNND I want to read this book that came out today. Bah...
- Puck's (you know, A Midsummer Night's Dream...not the dude from Real World) final speech was featured in a Golden Girls episode I watched at 2am. I thought it was a sign from the heavens that I was supposed to be watching. No joke.