No Magic Formula Today...

Day: 7
Time: 7:58 p.m. (Standard Time)
Expected Word Count: 12,833
Current Word Count: 9,578

Yeah, I'm a day behind.  Yesterday, I wanted to read too badly.  I felt like I hadn't indulged in a good Reading Day for weeks.  Apparently I'm becoming too connected to my Nook. : )  So, instead of watching TV or getting other things done, I read. And read.  And read.  So, I skipped a NaNoWriMo Day.  Can I make it up?

Yep.  Got to!  No choice about it.  I've made this goal for myself, setting it higher than last years to give myself a little extra challenge, and I'm writing a totally new genre of book than last year's.  And, doggone it, I'm going to make it!  I can do it!

I've figured out that there's no magic formula to getting your word count done.  No special coffee drink, musical play list, or time of day that will make the words flow from my fingertips.  All of those things do help, but sometimes it's just making yourself sit down and get that first page, first paragraph, first sentence, shoot - the first WORD out of the way so that the blank page doesn't beat you that day.

So, I'm picking up with Chapter Five.  Beata and the kids are now having to face the loss of Imogen, and the next two chapters will take us up to the decision that Beata makes to try running North to what she only hopes will be safety and humanity. 

The words haven't flowed like I've wanted them to yet tonight, but I'm determined that they will.  I'm back at S'bucks, and wouldn't you know it?  There's another teacher here (not from JJL), and (even cooler) another NaNoWriMo'er.  We were both sitting at our laptops, hooked up to our Ipods, sipping our beverages, and tip-tapping away at our keyboards, when he noticed the "NaNoWriMo All-Star" sticker on my laptop, and caught my gaze, then pointed at his own laptop and mouthed "NaNoWriMo". 

So, that's kind of cool, knowing that I'm in the presence of my NaNoWriMo brethren, even in the wilds of the Romeoville Starbucks. 

I must say, though, I look forward to our daily write-ins at school.  There's something about the being in the presence of other writers, that makes me feel more at ease.  Perhaps that's why I almost never write at home.  I need to feel some sort of connection to the world at large.  That, and the cats like to sleep on my keyboard.

Well, time to get to work.  I'll update my word count later tonight.  Time to get back to beating the blank out of the page.

~Mrs. W.