After the ups and downs of Week 2, Week 3 was nearly all down. 😦

I got stuck. Really, really stuck.

I thought “I will give my muse a rest for a couple days; THEN I will be ready to write again!”

Not so much.

Procrastination. Blocks. Dinking online…(Oooh, I’m not supposed to do that!)

To get myself re-motivated I watched more of my ModPo class on Coursera (will cover in a post soon–it’s fabulous!). I ordered a Kelly Writers House (hosts of ModPo) coffee mug. I decorated a Christmas tree–with multi-color lights for the first time in I don’t know how many years (there’s a post in there somewhere, too).

Then I decided I had to do something that might actually HELP with my novel dilemma–where is this frickin’ plot going???

One of the perks of NaNoWriMo is the pep talk that shows up in your inbox every couple days (thank you, writing gods!). Another is the ability to tap into heretofore unknown resources. One resource that showed up (after making a very small donation to the non-profit organization that supports NaNoWriMo) was a free StoryWonk video class on STRUCTURE. (Structure? Hunh? You mean I can’t just write in circles and hope to end up somewhere?)

I already knew I had structure problems–I just didn’t know exactly what they were.

This video class really helped. It confirmed I actually did know some of the problems–and it showed me others, then gave me solutions to address them. After mapping out some possibilities, I started writing again yesterday. And today I hunkered down and plunked out 5000+ words.

I’m still behind schedule, but I’m 3/5 done, and completion is still viable if I can generate about 3500 words/day. (By “completion” I mean a 50k-word draft that will need to be completely rewritten, but if I’m lucky will have some bones to start with.) Whew. It will make for a long week, but I think I can squeak through.

I welcome any creative energy you can spare!! 🙂

Stats

Target word count end of Day 25: 41,675

Actual word count end of Day 25: 32,403