Another morning where I woke up early, I think around 6 this time, and my mind wanted to get up to write, but the rest of me didn’t. I stayed in bed and finally got up around 7:30, but I had a horrible sinus headache. First, I got online while my brain sluggishly started working. I started writing at 8 am, but stubborn me didn’t take anything for my headache till close to 9 as well as eat breakfast. All the while, I only managed 599 words.

I tried to write some more, but only managed 241 words until I told Will that my brain wasn’t working and asked if we could do our us time first then later tonight, I could sit back down to write. He was fine with that so off I went to have a fuzzy-headed day, hoping my head would clear and wake up for the evening.

This sort of worked as my brain went in and out of fuzziness all day. I was able to sit down around 5 and write on and off for a couple of hours, bringing my daily total written to 2,705. It was tougher as I was writing smaller scenes and it always takes me time to transition to a new scene. I didn’t think the scenes would be so short, but I just couldn’t think of anything else to say to make them longer.

So now I’m in the middle of scene 23 and according to my outline, I have 3 scenes after this. The next scene is the longest, but the scene after that will be challenging as well because both will contain a lot of description and fighting, which is hard for me to describe. Depending upon how I’m feeling, I may sketch them fight parts like an outline and fill in the detail when I go to revise and have the time to research.

I’ve been feeling a lot more stress as I get closer to the end. I think I’m putting too much pressure on myself. I need to lighten up and relax. I know I’ll get this done, I just need to give myself time.

Besides, I need to be in a light-hearted mood when I get to the omakes. Those are going to be great. Like the dessert after a heavy 7 course meal. It may be too much, but I just can’t pass it up! Lol.

Here’s all of what I wrote today.

"Day 21: Scene 20 finished, 21 & 22 finished, 23 started" 
 

Ah, I wish I had finished Scene 19 yesterday. I don't feel that I had the same rhythm today as yesterday. I wasn't in any frame of mind to write this morning. A fuzzy head again.

Probably because I woke up at 3 am, thinking about my characters in a later scene. Part of me wanted to get up and write, and eat, but I was really tired. I finally got back to sleep, but I don't think it was very restful.

Oh, well. That's what the revising stage is for, to make it all better.

On the other hand, I've gotten to 43,062 words! I wanted to write more today, but company is coming over and I haven't washed the dishes. Of I go to do that, but I'ms till keeping it in my mind to try and get to 50,000 by Sunday!

"Day 20: Scene 19 finished & 20 started" 
 

I posted everything up earlier, but then started playing video games. Now it's very late, past my bedtime, but I remembered that I wanted to do a blog entry.

I had an epiphany about Ferinos and Loola today while writing their steamy scene. I won't give away what the epiphany is, but I feel it will make them both stronger and realistic characters. I am very glad because I was afraid they'd be too one-dimensional.

I have about 10 scenes left, I think. I have to recount, and that assumes I don't insert anything more. I also have to consider whether the omake episodes are part of the novel or just extra fluff that I'll write later. I guess we'll see. My main goal is to finish the novel by the 30th, so I'll focus on the main part. If I get there and still have time and energy, I'll work on the omakes.

For now, enjoy what I wrote. Sorry it cuts off right before it gets good, but that's better than cutting right off before the climax. lol.

"Day 19: Scene 18 finished and 19 started" 
 

Ugh, I don’t know what I did to my back, but it’s hurting me today. I was fine when I got up and got on the train to go to work, but when I got off the track, I had a dull ache in my lower back right around where the tailbone is. And it only got worse as I sat at my desk for work.

I went out for a walk during my first break instead of writing and it felt better for a little while, but again, as I sat, the pain came back and was starting to get a little sharp. I took 800 mg of Motrin and heated up my rice wrap. It’s feeling better now at lunchtime, but it still aches. I may have to lay down a while when I get home with a heating pack on my back. Gosh, I hope I didn’t do anything permanent, maybe I just pinched a nerve…

Anyway, for finishing up scene 16, I wrote on the train in and at lunch, getting to a total of 1,439 words. I know I can stop there, having reached my daily goal of 1,000, but I’m really trying to get to 40,000 words by the end of tomorrow. I think I can do it as I’ve written 36,147 words total, but I have to write more today, about 500 more words to split the goal evenly between today and tomorrow. I’ll need to write 1,927-ish words tomorrow if I make the same amount today.

Hopefully I’ll be okay at my afternoon break to write, otherwise I may go for another walk. I’ll certainly try to write more on the train home.

***

I wrote some during my last break and a lot more on the way home. I wrote 836 words, starting and finishing scene 17.

That brings me to 2,275, more than enough for what I wanted to write today. So I’ll definitely be able to make it to 40,000 words tomorrow! Yeah!

Then, my next goal, which is much harder – to get to 50,000 by the end of the weekend. That will require me to write 3,334 words Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which I doubt I will do, but I’m going to try!

"Day 18: Scene 16 finished & 17 finished" 
 

Not as good as I wanted to do today. I wanted to reach 2,000 but the words didn't flow so well. I wrote 4 paragraphs on scene 16 on the way home, read it over, scrapped it because it wasn't where I wanted the scene to be set. So I didn't write as much as on the way home.

But I still made it over my daily goal, so I did good.

"Day 17: Scene 15 finished & 16 started" 
 

The words flowed today! Like lava, I'm on fire!

lol.

Since I got to such a high word count for a work day (2,647 when my goal was 1,000), I decided to go walking with my coworkers in the afternoon.

Boy, that beat my butt, and legs! I haven't walked around the park for 2 weeks and I am really out of shape.

I'm hoping to keep up my high word count, but I'm going to try to go walking with them more now that I'm so far ahead. The holidays are coming up and I don't want to gain any weight this year, so I need to keep my excerise up.

So here's what I wrote today:
"Day 16: Scene 13 finished & 14 finished" 
 

My brain was pretty clear today. Rolling along just fine. Another day I could write for a long time, but unfortunately, I do have other things to do. Life is nagging at me. lol.

But I feel like I've got a good balance going between writing and the rest of my life. I certainly hope I keep up on writing/revising every day after November is over. Not at such high levels, but at least something every day. That's the key to getting it done.

However, I'm looking forward to have more time to do other things, like write for other projects and actually catch up on emails, like the two week's worth of newsletters sitting in my inbox. I also haven't really looked into what its involved with being a part of A.C.E. I'm looking forward to participating, but have no spare time right now.

So without further ado, here is what I wrote today:
"Day 15: Scene 12 finished & Scene 13 started" 
 

I still made it to my goal even though my head is completely fuzzy. Really, thinking was very hard, but then again, maybe it flowed better because I wasn't thinking. Ah, I don't know. I can't really look over my work without wanting to revise it so I try not to look back too far.

I didn't sleep well last night. We put another blanket on the bed, but it made everything too heavy. So while I was warm, I slept fitfully and woke up very stiff and sore. Hopefully we can go out today and walk a bit to get everything moving right again.

Role-playing yesterday was a lot of fun. We had a fun boxing scene. The whole set-up is hard to explain, but our group was trying to infiltrate an organization to get some information. Before we could be accepted in, we had to pass the initiation, which was a hand-to-hand boxing tournament. In Star Wars, this is very unheard of. Good thing I had chosen a Cathar (think cat people) and was trained mostly to fight hand-to-hand with my claws. Even though I had to wear boxing gloves, all of my skills still applied, I just did less damage.

And so I was ready to fight, thinking I could take down any opponent in a few rounds. What I wasn't expecting was for Will's character to persuade my opponent to let me go first. It succeeded so I attempted a full-round knock out punch. I did so well and all my abilities worked together that I actually knocked him out cold. In one hit!

I was elated... then disappointed that I didn't really get to fight. Ah, well, next week is the final round of matches. I'll make sure to draw that one out and really have fun. hehe...

Oh, and today's writing is the final entry for the challenge to write 1,000 words for 14 days straight. I finally did it, after over 6 months of never getting around to it, NaNo helped me succeed! Now I only have one more challenge to complete and I'll finally earn that Merit Badge. "Challenge Yourself Activity Responses" 

So here's what I wrote:
"Day 14: Scene 11 finished & Scene 12 started" 
 

I made it to the halfway point! And I wasn't scheduled to until Sunday. It's great to be ahead of the game.

Some points are still a little difficult for me. Again, Adeena's sisters have a mind of their own and derail my perfectly planned out scene. But I go with the flow and find it works just as well their way, if not not better. I just have to adjust later for moments that don't happen. But I feel it's much more natural this way than the contrived outline that I plotted.

Now I've got to go finish cleaning up before company arrives. The guys are coming over to roleplay. I think we're doing Star Wars today, if everyone is coming. Otherwise, I think it's 4th Edition D&D, which I tend to have more fun with. I just like fantasy a lot more than sci-fi. Used to be the other way around, but I haven't been into sci-fi much since Star Trek Next Generation.

Here's what I wrote today:

"Day 13: Scene 10 finished & Scene 11 started" 
 

It's odd, but I'm getting kind of tired of cheering every time I make my goal. It's become, commonplace and expected. I know I can do it so it doesn't feel like a big deal any more.

I know it still is. I probably will run into barriers and complications, but I feel confident that I can handle them.

So I wrote 3,023 today, bringing my total to 23,731, which is ahead of schedule, but I want to get even farther ahead. Mostly because I feel like my novel is longer than 50,000 words and I really want to complete it all this month.

Funny, before I started this, I didn't think my idea was long enough to reach 50,000. Well, honestly, it wasn't until I got a lot of good advice on structuring a novel from SoCalScribe - NaNo Black Team 's UEN newsletters that prepped me for NaNo. I never would have thought to add subplots if it hadn't been for him. I wouldn't have known anything about story structure and the key points of a novel. I'm not sure I hit all those points, but I am more aware of it now and hopefully will be able to fix things when I go to revise.

Well, I should really get on with my day. I've got lots of chores to do, which sounds like a lot of fun for my day off. lol. Well, it must be done. And the sooner I get it done, the sooner I can get back to Dragon Age Origins!

"Day 12: Scene 8 finished and Scene 9 finished"