NaNoWriMo – The Final Push

OK, it’s here: the final push. Eight days to go. Eight days and 16,300 words to go before I can declare myself a ‘winner’.

I was so pleased with myself — having so much fun — last Thursday. I had written well all month so far, in the face of some adversity. I was hooked. This was it. This was what I was destined to do: write silly novels about adventures and mystery in a parallell world.

Then Friday rolled around. I took A to a doctor’s check-up, came home and tidied up the dishes, but by then it was time for lunch duty. After lunch duty I wrote a few hundred words but realized I had to tidy up the house a bit and do some laundry and I really ought to rake the leaves that all fell down at once two days before. The boys came out and jumped around in the leaves too, which made it far too much fun and there was no way I could force them inside and sit them down in front of something electronic so that I could write. No way. Then, when it started to rain and the boys were in baths, I realised I still had to make a snack to bring for the Ladies Christmas Ornament Basket Bingo night I had somewhat tentatively added to my schedule for that night. Plus I had stayed up past midnight the night before and I was tired. Waah!

The Ladies’ Christmas Ornament Basket Bingo turned out to be a lot more fun than I would have expected – especially when a small faction decamped to Molly Maguires at the end of the night. I ended up chauffeuring some of them home. Me! But there was another late night and no more writing done.

On Saturday morning I dragged myself out of bed and took A to his First Penance retreat at the church (it was a couple of hours of people talking and some candle-lighting and crafts, which kept the kids enthralled, along with a video of a guy telling a story about his kid which made all the grownups cry). Then home, lunch, an afternoon of sloth and an evening slumped in front of Doctor Who (Ah, DT how I love thee, but Russel T Davies didn’t half turn you into a wuss at the end, there).

I was starting to feel the pressure of two days with no significant word count by yesterday afternoon. Kevin very graciously suggested that I take the after-dinner portion of the day to plough ahead, so I cheerfully made said dinner (steak pie and chips, brussel sprouts and beans, thank you very much — molto bene!) and then scurried off and left the cleaning-up-and-boy-wrangling to him.

4000 words later, at 9PM, I emerged, blinking and victorious. OK, a few paltry hundred of those words were written over the previous days, but the bulk was last night. Woo-hoo.

So here we are, eight days from the end and, as planned I’m sitting at the foot of Mount Climax, looking up, nervously. Today, I have to take my characters and get them all in place for the final push. I have to gather them at the foot of the mountain and place ravenous dinosaurs behind them (not literally. No dinos in this book, sorry A.). Then I have to light a forest fire behind the dinosaurs. My characters must have nowhere to go but up – and quickly. I might hover a rescue helicopter (or maybe giant eagles. Giant eagles?! Honestly, Professor, was that the best you could do?!) over the summit, but it’ll be in the clouds, so they can’t see it. As they get closer they might hear it, but then the storm clouds must roll in so that they don’t know if it’ll even be there when they reach the summit or whether they’ll be stuck there waiting for the ravenous, scalded and pissed-off predators to arrive and devour them.

Sounds like fun. See you on the other side.