I smell like cocoa. My face is slathered in some chocolate cake concoction, promoting the wellness of pores and skin and the sugar industry.
I spent the day writing in coffee shops. Plural. Starting at about 1am, I plopped down at Anastasia's on Wilshire, typing out a story hunt-and-peck style. I have decided to join the legions that lose their minds for a month and write a novel. 50,000 words in just one month, and novel authorship will be yours! The only stipulation is that in order to get to 50,000 words, many concessions must be made. Your words must come fast and loose, and yes, most of the time, they will be crap. But you have battled the enemy, the self-effacing editor, and when it's all said and done 50,000 words that belong to you and you alone will exist where before there was nothing.
And that's something.
The catch is of course, National Novel Writing Month was last month. So. I'm late. Mostly because I found this book on the last days of November. And talented as I may sometimes find myself to be, writing a 50,000 word novel is just 3 days isn't one of the miracles I possess.
I went from 300 to 3300 words between 1am and 7pm today. There's something gratifying about letting quality loose to the wind and worrying about nothing but word count. (Though secretly, I am in love with what I am writing. At least, so far. The aforementioned book promises this will change.)
Congratulations. I don't think I would want to write one that fast. I hate having a time constraint on what I do. I wrote mind in about 6 months and it's just a few thousand over 40,000. I was told that was appropriate for a first novel.
Posted by: lee tillman at December 8, 2004 05:31 PM