One week in!

Week One Recap
Well, here we are on Day 8 of NaNo. It's been just over a week and here are everyone's totals:

Renee's Progress
Jon's Progress
Karen's Progress
Chandra's Progress

Just to recap, Karen's, Chandra's and my goals required us to be at 8,000 words by the end of the day today and Jon's goal required him to be at 2,000 words. We are all kicking major NaNo heiny!!! Special props to Karen for already making it past the halfway mark only a quarter of the way through the month.

Daily Recap

Yesterday...well, yesterday sucked. Having not met my goal Tuesday night, I decided to get up early and write for a while before work. Due to some logistical issues I won't bore you with here, it made the most sense for me to actually go to work early and write there rather than try to write here at home.

The plan was that I would write on the bus on the way to the office then find a quiet corner of the food court (I'd scoped one out the previous morning) where I wouldn't be noticed or disturbed and write for 45 minutes or so there before heading up to my actual desk.

The first place the plan went awry was the bus. Depending on my schedule for the day, I either take the 7:20 or the 7:45 bus in. The 7:20 is always full so I almost always have to share a seat with someone. Wednesday morning was no different. I was a little uneasy about working where someone could so easily look over and read what I was writing--this is a rough draft and while there are occasional moment of out-of-the-box brilliance, most of it is not yet meant for public consumption. I also tend to compose at the keyboard--literally. Type a sentence, delete most of it, retype it, erase a word or phrase, think for a minute, replace said word or phrase. Move onto the next sentence and repeat. That means that some of my first sentences are really, really crappy. I'm rambling here, but bottom line: I'm self conscious about someone reading over my shoulder while I'm writing. Add to that the fact that the particular scene I was in the middle of writing was of a...romantic...nature and forget it. Can you say 'awkward'?

So, here I am, trying to ignore the woman sitting beside me on the bus. Then I realize that she is actually ignoring me. Awesome! She appears to have no interest whatsoever in what I'm doing. I relax and get to work. A few minutes later while thinking about the wording of a phrase, I turn to look out the windows on the opposite side of the bus and catch the woman sitting in the seat across from me blatantly and shamelessly reading my screen. There endeth my progress for that bus ride.

I get to work, pissed off at the woman, at the lost time, at myself for not being able to just get over it and write anyway. I hustle my ass to my predetermined secret corner in the food court and whip my laptop back out of my bag. I don't even take off my coat because I don't want to waste the 20 seconds it will take. A couple of deep breaths, a quick re-read of the scene so far to get my head back in it and I'm back in the game. Happily type-type-typing away.

Until a few minutes later when two of my employees appear and decide they simply must sit at a table near mine to have breakfast.

I think I logged a total of six sentences through the entire experience. Much crankiness followed, along with a packed schedule and lots of work related stress.

I finally get home last night, start working and dinner arrives. After dinner, I sit down again--determined!! to get my words in--and I'm almost literally falling asleep at the keyboard.

637 words.

I was quite disheartened by the whole experience and the fact that yet another day had gone by without meeting my goals. I seem to be back on track today (1,006 words) so I'm trying to stay positive about the whole thing. As I mentioned previously, I have some family commitments this weekend which will severely cut into my writing time, so I'm a little anxious. I obviously can't count on weekdays to make up lost word count--at this point I'm not even convinced I can count on weekdays to simply maintain my word count!--so I'm nervous to be giving up a weekend, too.

Once I'm able to see where I stand after the weekend, I'm hoping I'll feel more positive about everything. Bottom line, I'm pushing my story forward at an excellent pace (for me). I'm definitely happy about that. I just hate it when I think I can be Superwoman and turn into someone all too ordinary.

Have a great weekend everyone, and I'll check in on Sunday!