Irene Smith

My novel is coming along. I am progressing but not as quickly as I should. On the other hand, the weekend is nearly here and I expect to get caught up and maybe even get ahead then. In 2004 I was nearly 20k behind on Thanksgiving and I ended up finishing on the 29th. I plan on finishing by next Wednesday. Maybe I will finish this weekend. Who knows?

I always seem to go through a period with every novel where I absolutely hate it. Now that has passed and I will start churning out words again. I know that, I’ve seen it happen three times already and yet every time it happens I panic and twice I gave up altogether.

The truth is that this year’s novel is the best I’ve done so far. This year’s novel will be published if I have to submit it to 50 publishers to do so. Somebody is going to publish this novel.

I think the most exciting thing for me this year though has nothing to do with my NaNoWriMo novel, it has to do with the fact that my 12-year old son is also writing a novel this year. We gave him a 5,000 word limit this time, but he is doing it. Best of all, the story he is writing is extremely creative. I’m having fun watching it grow. Maybe he won’t have to wait until he’s almost 50 (or older!) to have a book published. Here’s hoping.

• OK I did it. I hit the 10k mark today. I didn’t think I was going to catch up until the weekend but I made. I have 10,009 words to be exact. #
• Now by the end of Friday I have to make it to 11, 667 words to stay on track. #

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This time I’m raising money to promote not only literacy, but writing, a subject that is certainly dear to my heart. If you believe that people should be encouraged to tell their stories, that the more you write, the better you will write, then please contribute what you can so that NaNoWriMo will continue to be possible. More and more people every year discover the pleasure and pride of writing a novel in a month and we can help that continue by making a contribution. It doesn’t have to be much. Just $5 will make a difference. Please click on the item below and do your part…

So, today was the third day of NaNoWriMo. How did I do? Better than expected. I started the day verbally constipated. Each word produced was a minor victory. I couldn’t seem to string together more than two or three sentences before stopping to check my word count, to stand up and take a break, to do anything except write. At dinnertime I had managed to work (for my job!) for four hours, to sleep for four hours and to spend at least an hour watching television.

I started writing at about 7:30 and by 8:30 I still had more than half my daily allotment to go. Between 9 and 10 I managed to do the rest of it plus about 350 words. My goal for today was to get to a total of 5,001 words. I actually made it to 5, 358 words before I called it quits.

The best part is that I left off at a point where I knew where I was going and what I wanted to say. I quit reluctantly rather than writing until I was exhausted. I feel good about my story and where it’s going. I know what I’m going to write tomorrow. What more could I ask for?

Tomorrow’s goal: 6,668 words. My hope? 7,000 even at the very least. I’d love to get to ten or maybe even 12k but that is probably wishful thinking.

• NaNoWriMo is going well. My novel is 3,454 words long. Got to get to 5k today. Was going to work but I overslept so I’m working from home. #
• No early voting as far as I can see. Guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow. #
• Going to rest for a while. I actually took the afternoon off. I’m not even writing! Got to get some sleep. #
• @unwriter Ah, you, eh? I’m up to count for yesterday. Still have to do almost the whole 1667 today. What’s your NaNo handle? Mine’s Irene #
• @NaNoWriMo Maybe you can update from any page, but nanowrimo.org is pretty much unreachable. It times out 9 times out of 10. #

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