11.11.2009

The "NaNo workshop" has been a success! My word count is exactly where it needs to be. And I'm less than a thousand words behind elbakerone. I'm beginning to think I can catch her.
The last two days have taught me a few things about myself. First off, I never knew I was so competitive. But now I do and I can use that. RidgewayGirl and I conducted three thirty-minute word wars. I've never done them before and now I know why so many Wrimos do them. My word counts were 1189, 1409 and 1294. RG didn't break 800 for any of them, but she improved her count each time. We're going to continue the wars as frequently as we can.
Secondly, the word wars helped me break out of "edit mode". Previously when I was writing, I would correct punctuation and spelling, rewrite and sometimes even delete sentences (a huge no-no). But I couldn't stop myself. All of that editing takes time and it was reflected in my low word counts. In word wars I knew I had to just type as fast as I could. I didn't stop at all and I hardly even thought about what I was doing. So, it's not as high quality as what I was doing before. And it will need a lot of editing. I probably will do NaNoEdMo in March.
But what I really find fascinating is the things that my mind came up with when I wasn't slowly plotting it out. Amy became a blackmailer. Which means none of my women are angels. Hezekiah laced the field behind the cabin with IEDs. He is a bomber after all, why didn't I think of it before? So in effect, the SWAT team is contained while he makes a run for it. So much drama! I also did Kyle's death scene. Luckily I was writing quickly so it wasn't too painful for either of us. And Jack saw the ocean for the first time. Not bad for 90 minutes of writing.
RG helped me out with Quebec. I'm so fortunate I can ask her about all the Canada stuff. Later she's going to help me with Jack's French. Now if I can just help her out with her red herring.