NaNoWriMo Update, Week One: Stephen King, deadlines, and livin’ the dream

I suppose I should open with an apology: this is day ten of November, so this is a bit past the week mark that I promised for these updates.  It’s possible I’ll only get to three this month, and for that, I apologize in advance, just in case.  But all the better that I was spending my time catching up to my word count – right?

While not writing, I’ve been nose-down in Stephen King’s The Stand.  Maybe “Game of Thrones” finally got me over my “ew” factor, but despite the increasingly wince-worthy situations he puts human beings in, I cannot put the book down.  Since it’s been dark starting at 5 now, I’ve almost missed a bus stop a couple of times because I was so intently reading…  Oops.  I chose that book to read in November because Jake and I agreed that King’s voice is less likely than many others’ to slip into my style while I’m trying to do ye marathon of words.

Work has been crazy busy.  Friday was a deadline of sorts, and the rest of 2013 is peppered with them, so I’ve been shocked by how much I’ve still managed to write for NaNo.

Speaking of, can I just say, this is living the dream?!  If I can still balance work with writing a novel once or twice a year, I can be the kind of prolific author I’d like to.  Who knows if that’s a realistic goal to set – all I know is, I like my chances.  Challenge accepted.  And all that good stuff.

How’s the book itself going, August?! I hear you demanding.  It’s going splendidly, if I do say so myself.  I was nervous that with so much outlining, I would have outdone myself – set such high bars in describing scenes that by the time it came to write them I would disappoint myself at every turn.  So far, though, I really enjoy the characters as much as I thought I would, and the squiggly plot bits have worked themselves out in my subconscious brain and are working their way onto the pages – thank the constellations.  G and K are both entertaining witty types, so they’re fun to write bantering (or, y’know, writhing in the sweet green grass, winkity wink).  It was a good move to go ahead and heavily inject characteristics from people I know into my characters, as it’s really brought them to life.

But…there was that awkward moment when the young lovers lived in the same dorm room I did in college…  Not gonna lie, I hope that gets back around to someone.  It would be a very satisfying sort of revenge nod to history.

Above, Jake’s illustrated a pilot pin.  As I’ve said many times before, I love having his talents at my disposal; he takes notes graciously, has fascinating concepts of his own, and helps me find and fill the holes in my ideas.  He’s been the most incredible support system for the last ten days (really, for the last two and a half years), and I highly recommend that anyone who wants to do NaNo find a motivator as dedicated to kicking their ass as Jake is mine. 🙂

As I write this, I am at 20,424 words and hoping to get in another 1600 or so tonight.  Considering that’s a little over 2000 words per day with no break days – and I accounted for five break days (only took one, when the laptop cord was missing) – I’m very satisfied with where I am right now.

And with that, it’s into the second stretch…always the hardest, in my experience…