NaNoWriMo :: Day 10 (The Day of Dialogue)

Day 10 Wordcount : 17,055

Day 10 Morale: High

I'm still on track to meet my 50,000 word count by the end of the month.  The first week, I built up a word cushion, but was forced to take two days off over the weekend. Friday night we had a friend over for dinner.  I spent all day running around after the kids, cleaning and picking up toys.  And we spent all evening eating an amazing meal and getting caught up with an old friend. Since I've proven to myself - through my repeatedly failed efforts to get up at 5 a.m. - that I am not a morning person, if I don't write at night, I don't write.  

Then Monday night, I got caught up in website design for Kevin's high school reunion.  Let's be honest, had I wanted to write, I could have put aside the html and thrown myself into it, but I didn't.

Here's the great thing!  I'm one of those people who starts things full steam ahead - workout programs, diets, soundtrack contests.  Typically about a week into these things, if I have one stumble - one missed workout, one piece of chocolate cake thrown into the diet mix, etc., the enthusiasm goes right out the window. I was worried after my two days off that this might be the case with NaNoWriMo. But, surprisingly, it wasn't.

I sat down to write last night and I was frustrated.  My characters have been trapped in this incredibly long conversation on the front porch of their house.  There's a lot of pacing and talking, but very little else.  As I've been writing the words, my inner editor and my inner instant gratification junkie have been screaming at them to finish up already. I didn't want to finish the scene, I didn't want to hear them drone on about their past problems, I just wanted them to get on with it.  If I'm honest about it, on Monday I avoided writing because I couldn't figure out how to move them along and get on with the story.

Last night, after a great Mexican dinner, I took charge again.  I wrapped up the scene - albeit, abruptly - and got my characters headed on their merry way.  And this was just the change that I needed. Maggie returned to school and met up with her college roommate.  And I love the roommate.  She's funny and brash and has just the kind of energy that keeps a scene moving.  I whipped off 2,000 words in 45 minutes without even thinking about it.

After thinking about it this morning, I've discovered the difference.  Maggie doesn't have a long backstory with her roommate.  They've only known each other for six weeks, so they are writing the story together as they go.  They have adventures, they make discoveries without thinking about it. When she's with her family, there is all of this history and layers and loves gained and loves lost, blah, blah, blah.  I need to figure out how to wade through that (and deliver the right amount of information to the reader) without it becoming a wordy mess.

I'm wondering if maybe the roommate is going to play a greater role in all of this than I originally thought.  She and Maggie are fun together, and I like writing them.