A Week's Worth of Excuses

It's been a while since I've updated my NaNoWriMo saga. I'd like to be able to tell you all that I spent my long Thanksgiving weekend writing like crazy and have completed my 50,000 words with plenty of time to spare.

Instead, I have to tell you that I will need to average a little more than 4,000 words per day for the last five days of this month to reach my goal. I haven't given up, but I'm pretty sure that's a little out of my reach. Thankfully I have until midnight on Friday, and I'll probably use every last minute of those last few hours to pound out as many words as I possibly can. I've also decided flowery descriptions and random scenes are not against my writing religion. "Whatever it takes" is now my motto and if that means writing out contractions and describing every detail of the room my characters are sitting in, so be it!

The good news on the writing front is that while I didn't get much writing done over the last week, I did try to write at least a little every day since the last time I posted an update, and on most days I managed it. But in case you're wondering why I didn't meet my word-quota, here is a week's worth of excuses:

1. I had company last weekend, along with a friend's birthday party and work at the football game on Sunday.
2. On the way home from the game I was in a car accident. I wasn't injured aside from minor muscle strain, and my passenger is doing OK, although she was a bit more banged up than I was, but my car--well, here are the pictures.
3. I spent Monday setting up a rental car, working from home, relaxing my back, making insurance calls, getting my belongings out of my car at the impound lot, and stressing about whether or not my car will be a total loss.
4. Tuesday I worked late to make up some of the hours I missed Monday and some of the hours I'd be missing Wednesday, then went home, did laundry and packed for my Thanksgiving vacation.
5. Wednesday I made the long drive home after a half-day at work. During the trip, I listened to Elizabeth Berg's Dream When You're Feeling Blue. It helped the time pass on the way there and the way back, and it inspired me to ask more questions about my parents' pasts. It also made me regret what I didn't take the time to ask my grandmothers, who were alive during the war.
   
6. I spent Thursday through Sunday with my family and did manage to get in about 5 hours of writing over the long weekend.
7. While I was home, there were two serious illnesses and several small mishaps that made it quite the adventure, and of course took away time from my writing plans.
   
8. The long drive back on Sunday, and then dinner with My Love after several days of not seeing him, meant no writing.

So after all that, tonight there's a write-in and I'm headed to it. I have to try to meet my quota by 8PM so that I can get home in time to watch Heroes. I'm going to do my best to make that 50,000, and if I don't, I'm still 29,000+ words closer to a novel than I was a month ago.

UPDATE: Just got back from a productive write-in and I'm happy to report 3,046 words have been added to my total. And an excellent scene, if I do say so myself. A little wordy, but definitely a welcome addition to the story. Stay tuned for another exerpt...