nanowrimo update #2: in the zone

We're halfway into the month! As you can see from my stats, I've jumped out way ahead. I'm almost 7000 words over the projected goal for today, and wrote a little over 20,000 words this week. In fact, this blog post is probably going to be short because I'm antsy to continue writing!

I love being in the zone. I don't know any writer who doesn't. It's a condition in which you don't eat, don't pick up your phone, don't jump on Twitter every five minute (other than to tweet I am so massively in the zone right now). There's a sense of urgency to get the words on the page before they get lost in your memory and mixed up with the words to "Rock Me, Amadeus" (which you didn't even realize you knew, and are saddened that they take up precious brain space). You wake up thinking about your characters. You shower and plan the scene you're going to write. You pull over in your car to jot down ideas for scenes later in the novel. You lose sleep and nutrients. You gain caffeine and stiff muscles.

I'm not concerned about whether any of it is good right now. Chances are I'll read it two months later, shake my head in bewilderment, and say, "This is what I was so excited about?" But for now I'm loving my characters. I'm putting the screws to my protagonist. I'm reveling in the secrets they're spilling, the plot twists that I didn't see coming. And once again, I've fallen in love with one of my male characters. No wonder I'm still single.

The competitor in me wants to get even further ahead in the word count, especially since I won't be able to write this weekend. I'm so in the zone right now that I'm thinking things like, "Heck, not only will I finish NaNoWriMo before Thanksgiving, but I'll also finish the entire first draft by the end of the month!" I have to be careful with such optimism, however. You can find yourself out of the zone as quickly and unexpectedly as you found yourself in it. As I said, the competitor in me wants to get ahead in the word count. The writer in me just wants to keep writing, keep telling a good story, stay with the characters a little bit longer. Better to defer to that part of me than the other.

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