Day 9

Tonight I got to the end of my outline for the current section of the book, and with it to the end of what I have planned for the NaNoWriMo event. This is very satisfying.

I’ve been keeping ongoing notes on this section (which comprises one character thread of the three threads in the novel), so there are pieces to go back and fill in—I expect I’ll take care of those tomorrow evening. One scene—the one I referred to back on Day 3—will remain un-rewritten until after NaNoWriMo. And yet with the rest of those pieces filled in, I can leave this section behind and continue onward and upward with the other two characters.

To remain at least numerically on target, one would need to have 25,000 words completed by November 15th. I’m 7339 words and 6 days away from that checkpoint, so I feel pretty good about the progress so far.

My next step, which I will begin poking at tonight, is puzzling out what to do with those other two character threads. I have thousands of words previously written on them, the lot of which will need editing. But within the constraints of NaNoWriMo, I’ll need to write new scenes other than those I’ve already written…with the added complication of needing to completely re-outline those two threads and thereby see what I can keep of the old stuff.

Well, I said I needed a jump-start on the novel. ;)

• Day: 9
• Days Left: 21
• New Words: 1672
• Total Words: 17761
• Fluids: Coffee, Diet Coke with Lime, Water.
• Exercise: Quite a bit of walking today.
• Reading: “Dandelion Wine” by Ray Bradbury.
• Listening: The Dresden Dolls
• Obsessing on: our new “memory foam” bed padding (with accompanying Homer-like drooling action) as well as GTA: San Andreas (not playing, just anticipating).