The Elliptical Crown – Day Seven

Another less than ideal writing day. I managed to stay above the 2000 word daily average, but just barely.

Part of my problem was that I came home exhausted and then had to deal with some other demands on my attention before I could sit down and write. Plus I’ve been in a bit of a blue mood all day, which of course doesn’t make it easier to think creative thoughts let alone write them down.

Tonight’s session started with Rose’s second street encounter with Innsmouth Look people, and it ended at the conclusion of Alison and Rose’s pre-Newburyport chat in the car. I’m in no shape to re-read it now, but sometime I’m going to need to take a critical look at this dialogue to see whether or not it is in fact dull as dirt, which at this point I richly suspect.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Six

Rescued once again by a late evening sprint.

Earlier in the evening I got distracted by coverage of the midterm election results. Not a proper topic for this blog, other than to mention that they were emotionally straining and not at all conducive to novel writing.

Once the results were mostly in, however, I found it easier to get back on task. Certainly I did much better than yesterday, not that beating yesterday's word count is much to be proud of.

Today I started toward the beginning of the conference between Rose, Alison and Jeff. By the end of the evening I'd reached the end of the conversation. Tomorrow it's one final bit of business in Boston and then hitting the road up the coast.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Five

My first bad day so far.

I felt wretched for most of the day. What started as a small headache in the morning became much worse – and added nausea to the mix – by midday. When class was over, I came home and went almost directly to bed.

Fortunately I felt better when I woke up. We had a good meal, and then I managed to salvage a little of the writing schedule after dinner. I’m still slightly above my target daily word count, but I lost a lot of the padding I built up over the weekend.

The whole session was devoted to introducing Jeff Marsh as a character and beginning the back story for the title object.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Four

Today was an interesting exercise in actually having too much time to write. Thanks in part to the switch off Daylight Saving Time, I ended up with several hours this afternoon. I actually hit a wall where I was still gunning for my optimal daily word count but having more and more trouble staying focused.

Eventually I gave up and went downstairs to cook dinner. After we ate and watched a little television, I sat back down and found a renewed burst of energy. I could actually have kept going if I hadn’t stopped myself in order to get to bed on time.

Today’s work finally got Rose out of NYC and off to Boston. When I first started outlining the story, I had no idea that what basically amounts to a prelude turned out to have such a large word count. At this point I am definitely looking forward to seeing what other details insert themselves as the novel continues to progress.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Three

Another irregular writing day. More than 800 of today’s words were written in the wee hours of the morning, really just a continuation of yesterday’s late-starting writing session.

Whatever does the trick, I guess.

I also had a problem with Word, which hung up and cost me around half an hour’s worth of work. Yet another lesson in the importance of saving frequently.

Of course when I started over, I saved after every paragraph. Doing that feels sarcastic somehow, like the crowd at a baseball game cheering for a strike after the pitcher throws several balls in a row.

The Elliptical Crown – Day Two

I got distracted by multiple other concerns for most of the day, not really settling into writing until after 9 p.m. But I managed to sprint for a couple of hours and put in a respectable showing for the day.

Today’s writing began with Rose’s arrival back at the law firm and finished with her preparing to move out of her former office.

The Elliptical Crown – Day One

And we’re off!

I stayed up past midnight and spent 30 minutes or so getting the novel started. Once again I’m committed to not making this blog a series of neurotic ramblings about word count. So I’ll likely only note it when I pass one of NaNoWriMo’s official badge points.

The story today began at the beginning, with Rose’s tragic (for her) courtroom loss. I finished as she arrived back at the office to face the music. In between, her story about the imaginary “sea people” from her childhood just popped into my head as I was writing. If I can keep successfully combining my pre-written outline with flashes of inspiration, this is likely to be a successful project.

Fingers crossed.