Halfway There

Today's Word Count: 2761
Total: 25,030

Wow, does that feel good!  Halfway to 50,000 before the middle of the month.  If I keep up with the average pace (averaging 2,085 words per day), I will hit 50,000 on November 23.  That would be quite nice.

It was a push to get there.  I didn't intend to go that far today.  For one thing, I started later than I usually do.  I had a hard time getting up the enthusiasm today.  But I knew I wanted to keep up at least the required 1,667 words so I didn't fall behind.  But, mentally, I'm at a stalled point in my main plot and I didn't know where to go.

What to do at those times?  Well, I think it's pretty much a common thing, if the forum posts at the NaNoWriMo site are any indication.  Just around the halfway point in the month, everyone goes into crisis.  Well, maybe not everyone.  There are a few who are either over or so close to 50,000 words already, it's a given.  The rest of us fall prey to uncertainty, confusion, lack of motivation and a whole host of other impediments to getting the writing done. 

The thing to do when you hit those points, is to sit down and do something.  Go back and add the couple sentences you thought of that should have been in an earlier scene.  Re-read a little of where you left off.  Don't get carried away with this, though.  That can make things worse, as you realize that this thing is going to take a whole lot of work to make it decent.  But sometimes, just re-reading the last paragraph will spark something further. Leave the main plot for a bit and work on a sub-plot.  Or do what I did- explore some character development.  Find out how your main character interacts with other people outside the main action of the story.  You're going to need some of that in there, anyway, if you are going to have a nicely rounded character that readers will care about.  So I wrote a nice family dinner scene and suddenly, I found I was only five or six hundred words away from 25,000.  And I was determined to get there now. 

Get your inspiration, your motivation wherever you can- characters, action, building word counts.  It's all good now.  The end of the tunnel is in sight.  And it looks good!