NaNo 2010 Day 6 (and 5)

Well, I missed one. Last few days I've been trying to cope with sleep deprivation. No, not because of NaNoWriMo, I just haven't been able to sleep. Two nights in a row, I went to bed early, something woke me up after only an hour of sleep, and then... no sleep for another four or five hours. Unfortunately, I was drained both nights as far as creativity went, so the idea of writing all night just wouldn't fly.

So... At the end of Friday night I just barely made the minimum - 20, 489. And that required trying so damn hard... I wanted to give up. Don't know if that helps anybody else - there are times when, no matter what, I just barely can keep going. I insisted that I could somehow, some way, beat 1667 words. At least I wouldn't fall behind. It seems so mechanical. Probably the worst part is that I am trying to deal with emotion in the work, a lot of emotion, and words I have shared with others who've suffered loss. it doesn't seem fair, I guess - women have to bear the brunt of the burden, and that was the point of the exercise for this book... That and paranormality might just possibly work.

Today was different. I managed to get a decent night's sleep, even if my mysterious wake up call came and went. I just read, working through the books from my colleagues at LARA. I love the inscriptions, several of which imply I might join them on the bookstore shelves. From your mouth to God's ear... I worked all day, slowly, but continuously. Late in the day I had a party at a club I belong to. If you've read anything else I've written you'd understand what kind of club. Suffice to say, I got enough material for several more books, and found myself remembering techniques and tactics I'd long forgotten. Time to play again.

So, I managed a little over 4K words today - the total is 24,551. I'm proud of that. It was hard work. I'm guessing, if Lucky Lady is any example, that I'll be writing well over 50K words. 75K was last years product. Thus far, what I had plotted as 5 chapters is written as 10. So we shall see.

Anyway, tomorrow will hopefully be a good one. Other than a few hours at work to get caught up I should have the whole day for writing. I hope...