As you might imagine, I’ve slowed down a little because of yesterday’s election. I went to bed early Monday night since I had to get up at 5:30. Then last night, after 14 hours of poll working, I pretty much crashed. So two nights in a row of not writing. I got in 1000 words tonight, putting me just over 11,000 total. I’m still pretty tired and my brain is even more tired than my body. My plan is to write every night this week and then do a really big push this weekend.

Some observations about this whole experience so far:

• Writing every day is useful. Even though much of the writing is bad, it feels much more like progress and the story itself feels much more contiguous than when I’m writing in snippets. I’d like to try to continue this pattern.
• Writing gets harder after the first rush. For me, there’s a nugget, a scene that gets me started. Once I’ve gotten past that initial spark, I’m much less motivated.
• That said, just writing helps keep me motivated. I find myself saying, “Okay, write just 500 more words.” And sometimes that leads me into another scene that I’m interested in and I’ll write much more than 500 words.
• People think I’m crazy for doing this. Maybe I am, but I don’t care.

Audience participation part:

• Any name ideas for the internet startup that my main character works for?
• Any thoughts on whether my main character should get the guy or not?

nanowrimo