Welcome to NaNo Day Five

Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition - in having put forth the best within you. - Henry J. Kaiser

Day four of NaNo is behind me and Day Five looms. Because it is Sunday, it feels oddly like the beginning of week two although that doesn't happen until Tuesday.

Yesterday I gave myself permission to step away. I worked through the morning (DH got up at 4 a.m. to go hunting and I am happy to say that he did not bring a deer home) and met my goal of 10,000 words. Then I just needed to take some time off.

I spent much of the day cooking. Because doing NaNoWriMo and NaNoBloMo weren't hard enough, I've opted to eliminate all refined sugar and flour from my diet this month to see if it alters my mood and makes me feel better. So… no ice cream to get me through the stress! I boiled pears from my SIL's tree in two big pots for pear juice (the pears are tough and inedible, but the juice is yummy) to use as sweetener and I made a HUGE batch of muffins with (home ground) whole wheat, whole oat and quinoa flour (with a TBSP of soy flour for a bit more protein). I added ½ c of honey for sweetener (the recipe called for TWO CUPS of sugar!) and grated squash, some pumpkin, blueberries and I chopped up a huge apple plus added apple sauce. They are so yummy! Can you tell that I never follow a recipe?

Last night, as I crawled into bed at 7:45 (oddly, the rest of the house followed only a few minutes later… we were all exhausted) I considered why I'm not loving my story and came to the conclusion that the characters simply aren't alive to me yet. I'm forcing them to go through the motions, but it's like actors on stage NOT like real life and it shows in the writing. I gave serious thought to starting over with a different story, but I'm not sure if I could handle that mentally or emotionally. I'm not ready to tell them goodbye, but they need to come to life and they aren't doing that yet. I can't remember the last time I struggled with this problem. Usually it's the other way around -- they're TOO real and take over the story.

My goal today is 12,000 total words.

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So far this morning, I've written 1,927 words

For a grand total of: 12,030 / 50,000

YAY! Made my goal... phew...