November is officially half over, but since I'm shooting for 80,000 words and not 50,000 words, I'm not quite halfway done. I feel like a runner that has reached a plateau. Every day, I can churn out the word count, but not much more. I read a book several years ago about a couple who decided to hike from the Mexico/California border to the top of California (or maybe it was to Canada). I wish I could remember the name of the book now. They journaled about their experience, which is what eventually became the book. Every day for the first weeks, they could only get maybe ten or fifteen miles a day in. Then they made 20 one day, a record that they thought would break them. However, after that day, they began to consistently hike more than 20 miles a day. It was like they had to break past some invisible barrier in their bodies first, and then the impossible was suddenly easy to repeat. I'm waiting for that to happen in my writing. I thought it already would have.
Maybe things will get better when I really do reach halfway and it's all downhill. Or maybe after I finish this scene things will be better. This is the last scene where I'm introducing new people and exploring the nature and reactions of two other subcharacters. I know the action that is to come, and I'm looking forward to that. I just need to get through this scene.
1 comment:
Was it A Blistered Kind of Love? (http://www.amazon.com/Blistered-Kind-Love-Couples-Barbara/dp/0898869021) "The 20-something Ballards alternate chapters to detail their 2,655-mile backpacking trek along the Pacific Crest Trail, starting at the U.S./Mexico border and ending in Canada."
Sounds good. And you know, even if you hike from Mexico to Oregon, that's still pretty darn good! (I mean that metaphorically and literally, too.)
At least you're actually trying to advance your plot in your NaNoing. When I was having a hard day writing, I'd usually write some sort of love scene to keep my interest and help me power through (and figure out all that "plot" stuff later). LOL!
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