I didn't know what to do. What direction should the story go? The endless line of un-caffeinated patrons shuffled past, waiting to "Starbuck-up." There were characters in so many faces, but they couldn't help me out of my dilemma, I'd written 15,000 words and I was stuck.
I did what so many do when they come to a difficulty in life, I went to the internet too waste time. I surfed to literary agent, Rachelle Gardner's blog and learned that November is national novel writing month. The challenge is to write a 50,000 piece in a month.
The first advise I read was to eliminate distractions. Turn off the internet - good grief, really!? Move forward, write, write, write. Don't look back. Don't look up or down, ignore the nervous lady and her goofy glasses. WRITE!!!!
With P's and Q's wafting in the wake of my madly typing fingers, I am taking the November challenge, 16,000 words down, 34,000 to go....
I'll keep you posted.
Word progress:
Nov. 8 - 17,294
Nov. 9 - 17,676
Nov. 10 - 18,300
Nov. 11 - 18,700 (most days the words come easy, today they didn't - weird, even numbers two days in a row)
Nov. 13 - 19,088 (working on a design deadline & sifting through a difficult section of the story)
Nov. 14 - 19,481
Nov. 16 - 20,147
Nov. 17 - 20,958
Nov. 18 - 22,019
Nov. 19 - 22,318
Nov. 20 - 23,086
Nov. 21 - 24,063
Nov. 23 - 25,083
Nov. 24 - 26,522
Nov. 25 - 27,363 I've known from the beginning I wouldn't make 50,000 on the current schedule, but wanted to continue and see where I land.
Nov. 27 - 28,056
Nov. 29 - 29,303
Nov. 30 - 29,620
This was a fun exercise. I didn't have time to get to 50,000 words, but the manuscript is coming together. A good portion of my time this month was spent researching. The story is about a young FBI agent assigned to rural northern Nevada. Reluctantly, he begins his job. An assault takes place in which a young boy dies. While Chase is hunting for the people who killed the boy, 9/11 happens and everything changes. The research was on 9/11 details.
