A Year of Showing my Work: Day 20
Daily words: 2,018
Total words: 4,044
I honestly didn’t think I’d make it. In fact, an hour ago I was sitting here thinking that if I just made it to 1,667 — the daily average you need to finish 50,000 words in 30 days — I’d be fine. I could be done for the day if could just get to 1,667. But then I looked up and realized that I’d made it over 1,900 and if I could just eke out a little more I could hit my 2,000-word goal. Funny how it happens that way. You tell yourself “just a little bit more” and end up making it to the end.
I’m trying very hard during this whole thing to shut off my internal editor, but it’s hard. I find myself thinking “oh I should just fix that real quick” or “that sentence isn’t as clear as it could be, I’ll just take another pass at it.” Most of the time I end up just doing it, making the change. Especially if it’s something quick.
But I also have thoughts about things that aren’t so quick and I know it’s going to bug me until I get this done and can move on to editing. Right now what’s bugging me is that there isn’t enough conflict in the last couple of scenes I’ve written. They’ve been mostly character introduction scenes, which are OK, but there should be some conflict, too. And it’s tough, because one of those scenes is a bit of a darling for me.
In the spirit of NaNo, I have completely rewritten it without looking at my older versions, but I have written and rewritten this scene several times over. It’s a scene where I introduce Danni’s mom and her two grandmothers and I love them all so much. Especially Danni’s Grandma Junie, who’s a bit feisty and probably my favorite character in the book. This time around I tried really hard to have something happen in that scene, something that at least advances the plot, but I don’t think it’s enough. I’m going to have to come back and completely restructure that scene. Or lose it. But I really don’t want to lose it. I know the saying about killing your darlings, but I don’t want to go that far unless I know it’s absolutely necessary.
