Sunday, November 09, 2008

20,000 Words and Truckin'

And thus concludes the first day of the second week of NaNoWriMo.

This week started off beautifully. I was a little late to the starting gate, not getting my first word written until well into Saturday evening. Sunday wasn't much better but I still managed to start my work week with a about a 1,000 extra words in the bank.

Monday I set the alarm, got up and then wandered around on Facebook and Weight Watchers before knuckling under and producing a single written word. Whoops!

Tuesday, now much wiser, I got up and wandered to the couch where I whipped out a cool 2,000 words without even breaking a sweat. I'd hit on a formuala - I could talk about my travels!

Wednesday I put the laptop down with only 800 words written but still feeling okay about things. It had been an early morning with me needing to get my daughter off to school and so writing time was cut short for good reason. No sweat, I still had two more days and the WEEKEND! Goal, 25,000 words by COB Sunday night.

Two in the morning on Thursday morning I was hanging my head over the toilet vomiting up, wait for it, blood.

Shit.

This went on for 6 hours with me forcing everything out of my stomach every 15-20 minutes like clockwork. When it finally ended I was an exhausted wreck who wanted nothing more than to never ever see food again and to sleep for the next eight weeks.

Chris called the doctor. The doctor called me and ordered me to the emergency room.

Double shit.

Despite their attempts to admit me, I resisted with my newly intravenously provided willpower which had done much to rehyrdate me. I made promises and we went home.

Obviously there was no writing on Thursday.

Still exhausted on Friday my word count of 8,900 remained exactly where I'd left it on Wednesday. Things were not looking good.

Feeling better over the weekend, we now tackled several things that needed doing, to include getting the SMELL out of the apartment (you vomit for six hours straight and see if it doesn't leave a stink.)

But last night I opened up the laptop and began work in earnest again. Despite being pulled slightly off track today by a 3 hour phone call from a friend I hadn't spoken to in 25 years (we had a LOT to catch up on) I was still whipping the words out.

So here I am, Sunday night, at 20,000 words written...leaving me a solid 4,700 word buffer. Just in case I talked my way out of the hospital just a bit too soon!

And here is a shout-out to all the NaNoWriMo folks fighting their way through their own personal battles just for the ability to say "I Won!"

NL