NaNoWriMo-Day 14

Current word count: 24,051

The weekends. A time to sit down, shirk all other responsibilities and write. Let’s be serious. Melting into the couch with my boyfriend Kevin is far more appealing. Although, I found time on Saturday morning while he worked to update 13 more attraction listings for my internship and scribbled a few drab words for my much-neglected blog, but still no NaNo writing.

My goal was to reach 20,000 words by Saturday so that I could get myself back on track, but I fell short of my goal. BUT, I did manage to make it up today by writing over 5,000 words! I’m a writing animal. 3,200 of those words were written in two hours at my weekly Write-In at Borders fueled by Alex’s (fellow Wrimo) yummy brownies and chocolate chip cookies that smelled like Christmas and cold-brewed marble mocha iced coffee.

As the Write-In came to an end, we discussed our concerns and dilemmas with our novels. Alex asked me and one other participant, Greg, to put excerpts of our story on our NaNoWriMo website homepage. Make my words available for readers? I felt the cold, icy hand of fear squeeze my heart, making my eyes bulge. Of course I immediately declined the suggestion. There is no reason my terrible words should be thrust upon unsuspecting readers. She assured me that writers are much harder critics of their own work than readers. I came home and checked over a few sections and concluded the only thing I would accomplish from publishing an excerpt of my novel is shame.

Once I got over the mini spasm attack, I took a look at the amount of words I’ve written so far, and I can’t believe it. 24,000 words. I’m finally connecting with my story and can’t wait to write each scene. I’m having a lot of fun writing, watching my story and characters evolve. It’s just not ready for public eyes.

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