Day 13

Word count (drum roll, please): 21,792, ladies and gentlemen. One Hundred and Twenty One words AHEAD of schedule (the crowd goes wild...what a comeback!)

They got fresh peanuts in the V.I.P. lounge, folks, and everything is feeling good (except my right arm, and my shoulders, oh and my legs are cramped from sitting for hours on end). I am ready to keep up with my word count again, with no small thanks to my amazing, wonderful man who has allowed me to sleep in two days in a row this weekend to catch up on some much-needed rest. I can feel the difference in my brain activity.

So, I've answered one of the twelve important questions I set for myself yesterday, and avoided answering the remaining eleven questions by fleshing out an earlier scene with a stay at an inn in Hamburg. I discovered I had caused my two main characters - sisters Louise and Birgit - to travel 8 hours by steamboat and then another I-don't-know-how-many hours on to Leiden in one day. No wonder Birgit was suddenly not travelling well. I put them up for the night at the best inn I could find, complete with stout, gruff innkeeper and greasy food. (Truly pleasant inns make for boring reading. Mark my words.).

If I want to keep up now, I have to just make choices and go with them - even if it means scrapping whole sections later if I am wrong. The NaNoWriMo rules state that there is to be no editing done during the month of November. Every word counts, even if you know at some point in the writing process that you have to cut a scene or an entire chapter that has gone off on a tangent. I am going to focus tomorrow on feeling free to goof up. Not an easy thing for me, as you may have surmised...;)

The neighbor lady Yvonne came over this afternoon and surprised the girls with sweaters she had knit for them. Wow! Bright shades of orange and green, set off by brown and white, Sonia's features a parrot and Maddy's a snow man, with a drawstring waistband hung with big fuzzy pom-poms. I can honestly say I have never seen such amazing sweaters and the girls love them. The weather here is supposed to start feeling wintery on Tuesday, and we are ready for it!