NaNoWriMo – I refuse to let you beat me.
Cranked 17,000 words today. Outlined the rest of the plot and scenes I want/need to write before next Wednesday. Next Wednesday – holy crap, this deadline is coming up fast.
I’m aiming to write another 5,000 words before midnight tonight. That’s the goal. That’s my nut.
“Gotta make my nut,” I’ve been telling Larry.
To make said “nut” I need to write a minimum of 4,587 words daily between now and next Wednesday. I can totally do this.
Are there major plot elements missing? Um yes. Is this my finest writing? Hell no.
But come hell or high-water, I’m hitting my 50,000 word mark by midnight next Wednesday.
And, as promised, I would publish a short excerpt since I reached my smaller 15,000 word goal. To get up to speed on the overall story, read this first excerpt. You can also read a second excerpt here. My writing quality is less than stellar in racing toward the 50,000 word mark, so I’m nervous about sharing more excerpts. So here’s what I could cook up recently that I feel comfortable enough to share out in the public (because boy howdy, I am writing some serious dreck, and this is probably the cheesiest passage I’ve ever written):
“Billets! Billets, s’il vous plait!” the conductor called, taking tickets from each passenger and punching it with his little metal paper punch. The train began a slow lurch forward and I lurched forward with the train in my seat. I reached up to hold my pink hat in place. Maman extends her gloved hand to the conductor, proudly holding up two train tickets.
“Two such lovely women headed to Paris with no bags?” the conductor teased. He was dressed in a crisp navy blue suit, the brass buttons of his uniform shiny and polished. His grey hair poked out from underneath his black conductor’s cap.
My mother coyly played along. “Lovely women such as us do not need to travel with bags. We carry only our beauty with us.”
“Well, Paris will be all the more beautiful in just a few hours as soon as you two step off the train onto the platform,” he flirted, handing back the punched tickets to my mother. She took them and carefully tucked them into her purse. “Is this your first trip to Paris?” he asked, the train’s pace now chugging up to a speedier rhythm. The marshes of Cancale were a blur of yellow green grasses, the sky a pale blue, the ocean shining vibrantly, holding steady on the horizon.
“Oui,” I replied and nodded, almost a little too eagerly. He leaned over and whispered in my ear:
“You’re going to love Paris. It’s a gem of a city, just like those lovely blue sapphire eyes of yours.” He lightly pinched my cheek. I felt my cheeks burning hot and bright red as the conductor passed.
“Billets! Billets, s’il vous plait!”
The train roared down the track, Paris bound.
No more dilly-dallying. Time to crank out another 5,000 words before I’ll let myself go to bed for the night.
Update, 2:06am: I’m up to 21,000+ words. I just wrote almost 9,000 words today. Daily word count is now at just over 3,500 words daily between now and next Wednesday. Going to try and churn out another 10,000 tomorrow. That’s right… tomorrow as in one whole day.
LET’S DO THIS!
/bed.
I hope you did it. I have done it twice, but took this November off. It was quite nice actually! Just don’t do what I did – I saved my first Nanowrimo under a password. You guessed it – I can’t for the life of me remember the password, and so I’ve lost all that work!
I bow down in front of you in AWE for attempting this!!!
Good luck!!
ICLW #68