NaNo Day 6

Yes, I did the minimum NaNo words again yesterday, and finished well after midnight. Midnight isn't really so late, unless like me you wake up at 6:30 in the morning.

Is it easier to face 1667 words while tired because when I'm half asleep I just don't care anymore whether any one of those words will ever be usable? It certainly helps.

There's also the motivation of the daily deadline, a "now or never" mentality. "Now" meaning "still able to sit upright and move fingers on keys." "Never" meaning "If I get behind on word count, I'll give up."

Met with critique partners yesterday and brought 2 pages of raw NaNo spew. I watched their faces carefully. I know these people, and they can't lie to me. Not that they'd really try.

They--and their faces--didn't lie. Their words were nicer than their faces. They said things like "this new voice could work if..." Their faces said, "No way ever in a thousand universes will this new voice take off."

So, yeah, confirmation for me: OFTEN, writers try something out and it doesn't go anywhere.

But those experiments and detours aren't wasted time, either. All the writing you do improves all the writing you do. That's a quote. From me!

Onward. It's not very late, but next thing I'll do is the daily word grind.