Open Tonite - Friday 11/3/2006

This photo may look blurry, but I assure you that it's appropriate. My eyes are just about shredded this morning.

I want to get 2,000 words a day this first week, and I had about 900 to go when I got home last night. I fooled around on the Internet (what was I thinking?) for a while when I first got home. Okay, well, after the half-hour nap, which was repeatedly interrupted by recorded telephone campaign messages.

My romp around 43Things, nanowrimo.org and various blogs was conducted after a day like this: 1 1/2 hours at Bob's staring at my screen and writing, then my 8-hour workday scouring the Internet for the information I need for my reports and typing them up. And I still had that 900 words to get to before bedtime.

Hydra came home about then, wanting help getting his computer online, and I've been putting him off for days. Finally we started working on it and after another hour and a half of online and telephone help from Linksys (and more computer screen ogling), that was done. I'd set up the network and it had gone so easily that neither of us remembered what the heck we'd done.

I went back and wore a layer of varnish off my eyes writing that 900 words, plus a bit more.

I'd advise anyone who's trying to do this to become a regular at a diner.

Today is Day Three, and the waiter already knows I'll want a cup of tea and some ice water for starters. I had this feeling--when I was considering staying in bed this morning--that I was expected at Bob's, and I didn't want to let them down...which kept me from defecting to Starbucks next door. (Another of the benifits is that the oatmeal at Bob's is about the same price as the Maple Oat Scone at Starbucks, but sooo much better for the body and soul.)

I seem to be experiencing diminishing returns on my time, though. Just about each successive session has resulted in fewer words per hour. Only about 650 this morning. This cannot continue.

It had a lot to do this morning with my commute-generated ideas about raising the stakes for both of the main characters, which required actually changing or omitting a couple of paragraphs, and lots of thinking about where to integrate the new information. If I were smart, I would just use the document like a big notebook and go on no matter what the contradictions...but I really like these characters already and I want them to have real cool stuff to deal with.

I'm writing in third person, going back and forth between two characters right now. And I'm finding the guy so interesting. I don' t usually write guys. But this one's really doing his best to ingratiate himself to me.

Who am I to turn down a fun, sexy character when he comes a knockin'?