One-tenth milestone

I am not too distracted today.  I've kept writing, which feels great, to be honest.  I feel like I did in college when I would sit in my lectures and write ideas and snippets of conversation I wanted to remember in the margins of my notes.  I feel excited to write again, and so you can probably guess what my lunch break entailed today.  My idea from yesterday has made writing so much easier, and I feel like maybe, just maybe, I'm finally getting somewhere.

I don't know why I'm so occupied with the idea of completing a November NaNo.  It may be because the municipal liaison for Bloomington started talking about it last Wednesday when I went to the group.  She was considering where she could hold the weekly write-ins for November and the kick-off event.  She also talked about how everyone has a bead bracelet as an incentive to keep going.  For every 1,667 words written, you get a bead for your bracelet.  If you accomplish certain goals (stay on track for the first week, be the first to 50k words, etc) you get a charm to add to the beads.  Somehow I think having a tangible reward, however little, could be such a huge incentive.  But then, that is a couple months away.

I was roaming the NaNoWriMo website and found the pep talks from the past years events.  Published authors write them and email them out to all NaNo'ers each week during November.  It just so happens that the authors of three books I loved have written these pep talks before.  Two of them, Sara Gruen and Erin Morgenstern, have actually done NaNo before.  Sara's pep talk showed that even now that she is published and successful she still does NaNo.  Her pep talk mentioned that she was behind on her word count (which, of course, makes me feel a little better about my own progress).  And then,  it was great seeing the talk by Audrey Niffenegger considering that The Time Traveler's Wife is possibly my overall favorite book right now and has inspired certain elements of my book.  I also liked seeing that Meg Cabot, even if I don't read her books, did a pep talk and has done NaNo in the past.  I suppose that's just because she grew up here in Bloomington.  She went to high school just across the street from where I lived last year.

I probably won't write more today.  I have been reading Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson.  It's not as relevant to my book as I hoped it might be, but I'm hooked regardless.  I may take some of my focus away from writing until I finish it, but I do plan to keep working on my word count tomorrow.

I read a quote on writing that made me feel better for missing my personal deadlines:

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

- Douglas Adams

Total Word Count: 9102 (1/10 of the way to my goal!)