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Saturday, November 03, 2012

Day 3 ... word total is 6062 ... about 12.5% done on the way to 50,000.  I see trying to complete the novel over but near 50,000 as one of the challenges of NaNoWriMo.  In the writer forums you see people saying they are going for 60/70/80K even up to over 100K words. That is all fine and good I suppose.  I'm lucky to get in my daily average because I have a family and work a job. 
I am keeping to my plan but let me say this about my plan.  Plan?  hahahahaha.  It is a rough outline.  I veered slightly today.  New character and new idea.  I also tapped a memory I hadn't thought about in years and years.  See, novelists generally have good memories about seemingly mundane events in their pasts.  Their muse taps these if they are on the ball and can pull from the inspiration.  Novels are generally about people doing things you or I would do.  Your characters may or may not react the same way you might, but your entire life provides examples and indicators of what your character might say or do.  Novels are like dreams, unfolding on the paper (or the screen) in myriad ways, just like dreams might.  And as that story unfolds, lost memories can pop up in you, the writer's, mind. That's what happened today.  It so happens I used to have a clunky old car with a faulty starter.  My character had already shown some inclination toward having "starter anxiety" whenever he put the keys in the ignition of his car and I tapped that memory to explain why.  My memory was impressed on his memory, explaining in some detail about the why and how of this situation.  Geez, I hadn't thought about that old car in years ... mental block, probably. 

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