Backfill

When I realized I was 10,000 words into the novel and had not yet left the confines of the house that is my main setting, and also hadn’t revealed some essential facts about the two main protagonists, I decided I needed to do a little backfill. So yesterday I wrote a few pages slowing things down and setting things up (and introducing an invisible Studebaker).

It wasn’t a great day word-count wise, but given that I was solo-parenting all day, it could have been a lot worse. This is actually a terrible month for me to try to do a big novel-push, because my son’s school is closed for what amounts to 1/4 of weekdays in November, which means I lose basically every day off I’ve got — prime major writing time — to childcare. (I love doing stuff with my kid. Yesterday we hung out in parks and took walks and made soup. But it’s not good for writing.) And of course there’s Thanksgiving, which will eat into my writing time, and I’ve got a story I need to finish.

But even if I don’t get a draft of the novel done, I should make substantial progress. And I’ve got a few hours to work this morning, so I should stop complaining and start making.

Word count (for what it’s worth): For the day: 775. Total: 11,247.

Notable Line(s): “If there’s a hallucinogenic gas that makes you think [spoiler] and [spoiler], I want to know where I can buy that shit on the street.”