Heather Foeh

The current magic number is 42,815. That’s my word count for NaNo! I’m closing in on 50,000 and man will I be thrilled when I cross that finish line.  I’m at the stage of writing where the ideas are flowing fast and furious twenty-four hours a day. My friend Kate Williams described it as “a hamster on crack running around in my head.” Well said. That’s exactly the way I feel…a bit manic, a bit crazed.

Our NaNo Pep Talk a few days ago was from Deanna Raybourn and I really liked this passage:

“When you write every day, you are always in the story. There is never a period of reconnecting with your characters, of trying to remember what mood you were attempting to create the last time you worked. And by working every day, you engage your subconscious in a way that simply isn’t possible when you keep a more whimsical schedule. There is no need to summon the muse because there is no time for the fickle little strumpet to go anywhere. I become so immersed in my story that I seldom write more than an hour a day, but I am typing the entire time, with no breaks to think or to wonder where the story is headed. I write flat out because the other 23 hours I have been thinking about the book while going about the rest of my life. (That includes the time I’m asleep. I seldom wake up without thinking of the scene I’m preparing to write. When I sit down to work, I’m essentially taking dictation from myself.)”

“Taking dictation from myself.” I love that. That perfectly describes my writing experiences of the last week or so.

Home stretch here I come!