NaNoWrimo Update

The picture on the left demonstrates a few very important things: my outdated tastes in Internet memes, my love of cute pictures of cats, and my steadily climbing NaNo word count. Stupid cats are stupid, so I suppose I should mention that, as of November 5, I have 12,145 words in my NaNoWriMo piggy bank (read: "word document").

And people said it was going to be difficult! Ha, I laugh at those imaginary people and put proverbial pen to proverbial paper everyday for at least 1,667 words. I have been keeping track of my daily word count and I will break down all of the data in a post at the end of the month. For now, suffice to say that I started out with a bang, 5,000 words on the first day, and have been coasting along since. Perhaps I will have another big push this weekend but it's not necessary: I am around 4,000 words ahead of schedule as it is.

As for strategy, I have none. I have relied on Write or Die a lot, but that is the only tid bit, the only piece of wisdom I have to offer. Everything else has just been bare-bones Write Write Write. You have read it thousands of times before in "How to Write" guides (though they usually throw in a few more tips just to justify their existence), and so have I. But who knew Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and Carol Behrman were on to something? Who knew the best way to write is to write?

It has not been an easy experience, this Nah-noo-reye-moh, but it has not been terribly difficult. Reading blogs about NaNo, and reading on the main site that over 80% of last year's participants failed to reach 50,000, I had my worries. I could have crashed and burned -- and hey, it could still happen -- but somehow this fine-looking stud has pulled through. Barring disaster, I will finish handily, maybe a few days ahead of schedule. Which is great news, both for the, you know, satisfaction of a job well done, and the possibility of having a real, live copy of my novel, courtesy of CreatSpace.com. I just learned about that offer today and it has proven to be a strong motivator. Nothing justifies your countless hours of writing a book like a tangible copy, that you can flip through, touch, and hold whenever you'd like.