Still Writing Away

Well, I should say still attempting to write. Some days are more productive than others. I ended up taking off two days over Thanksgiving because we were at my mother-in-law's house and I just couldn't focus there. It is always hard to get back into the swing of things after a step away from the novel writing. Thus, when I got back into it after the weekend was over, I had one day of less than a thousand words and another with less than a dozen. Yikes.

I finally got my groove back up again and was writing over 2000 words a day, when another weekend hit and my husband was desperate to get the Christmas stuff up (since it was already the 5th and 6th of December). I only wrote 168 words for those two days combined and now I'm back to the struggle of resuming momentum.

It is hard going at the moment. I've laid the foundation, established the characters and their separate goals, propelled the plot in the direction of the final climax, but have not yet reached that climax. Moreover, I'm already at 87,000 words. This novel could well be the hardest one I've attempted yet. It is longer. It is written from a more difficult point of view to use (dueling third person limited chapters from alternating narrators). It is set in the future (which means I have to stay consistent with a whole different world) and it sets up problems that are none too easy to resolve.

I would say I'm still having fun, but also growing a bit weary of the slow progress. I want things to begin moving at a quicker pace. I want to know how the story resolves, not continue hanging on a thread wondering what big event will take place to propel the main character into a cathartic moment. It is equal parts thrilling and frustrating. I persist in walking on the high school track, hoping for inspiration and mulling over what needs to happen with each day's writing, even though when I requested permission to walk there, I told them I would probably be walking on it through the month of November. Who knew it would take two full months to complete the rough draft of this novel?

All of this to say, I'm still alive and well and attempting to balance Christmas preparations and activities with novel writing and reading (in addition to books about my novel's topic or character traits, I also need to read the book for my book club coming up). I'm not done with my shopping yet, but I've tried to avoid the long lines at stores by making more of my purchases on-line. Thank goodness for that option.

And as for paring back this Christmas - pah! Not really happening. The boys might not get everything they want (like a certain one who thinks he should have an I-phone at age 11), but they are certainly receiving more than four items under the tree (to be honest, though, most of them are needs, like socks and clothes).