Wishy-washy

In a couple of minutes, it'll be Saturday, the 4th day of NaNoWriMo (which never gets easier to type, apparently). For the thing I was originally planning, I still have nothing on page this month. The other thing, which I've continued to poke at, is at a smidge over 1,000 words.

So what I need to do is make a choice. I think with the original thing, I lost a bit of the momentum when I realized that I didn't want to publish it (even if it turned out splendidly) until after I had published some other things. It has some elements which belong to a certain form of genre fiction, and I'd hate it if I later had trouble publishing things that didn't fall within that genre. So that took a little of the shine off of that diamond. I still plan to write it, I just think I might hold off and write it a little later.

The newer piece has some promise, but since I have nothing planned out, I can't say for sure whether it'll need 50,000 words to tell the story. It could die completely at 2,000 for all I know. Which, for the purposes of NaNoWriMo, would be a lot better than crapping out at 30,000, I guess.

I also remind myself that I didn't sign up in hopes of publishing anything right away. With the speed of writing required to complete my task, there's going to be an awful lot of work required afterward.

Two people who I've met through The Moon Topples are also doing NaNoWriMo this year. It's my understanding that neither has participated in previous years. Zorak163 currently is kicking my ass (and, I'm guessing, most people's) with well over 5,000 words. Julia Buckley has currently logged only 500, but is confident she'll catch up. She has the advantage of having her novel pretty well plotted out already, much like I thought I did before the month started and I began flip-flopping like a Democratic candidate.

Julia's blog is also quite a good read, by the way, and probably worth a bit of your time. I especially like her recent post "Baby Jesus is making me eat beanburgers," which describes how vegetarians are losing freezer space this year for the holiday season. She's from England, though, so don't freak out if she puts extra letters in words or puts her periods on the wrong side of her quotation marks. And I'm sure that she's just as scared of you as you are of her.

I figure I have to make my decision by Monday. By then I should have finished my current work project and will be able to concentrate full-time for a little while. Once I commit to one or the other, the words will effortlessly begin to pour out and enable me to cross the finish line with ease. I shall print out my certificate (the reward for completing the 50,000-word goal) with a small, satisfied smile on my face.

Mmmm-hmmm.