It strikes me as I step away from the keyboard for a few minutes that as different as parts of writing are from parts of quilting, there are similarities. The thing that matters most is the (I hope you won’t be shocked by this): persistence and perseverance.

I really didn’t like what I wrote yesterday. It was a nice chunk of words and didn’t do any harm but it didn’t do anything to advance the story or anything else. I knew that after all the words were counted, it would be the first thing to hit the editing room floor. Bleah.

I wrote a bit at lunch time and picked up the story where I’d left it. That was hard because I didn’t like how it had gotten there. But other than just starting in some random place what were the choices?

Tonight the story just went naturally to a wonderful moment.

When quilting goes bad – colors don’t play out, seams resist, mistakes just multiply, you have to take a breath and see what’s wrong and then get on with it. There’s nothing else to do. Get back in there, rip out what needs ripping out, pick out new fabric, whatever it takes.

OK, break time!

that you’re selling something to the wife of your doctor. Really? Just one of those weird things that happen.

the words still flow forth
was that a bit of plot too?
I was mistaken.

trust the characters
they often know what to do
because they’re in it.

second week NaNo
when the mush of words seems great
and plots not so much.

plot’s in there somewhere
keep pouring out words til then
it’s bound to show up.

I realized after a few hundred words today that oops, something I’d put down earlier didn’t jive with something I’d just written. Which was it going to be? I thought about it for a few minutes and erased a couple key words at the earlier part, updated a few things mid way through the new stuff and couldn’t quite get myself out of the hole. I still can’t decide: should the small character be this type of being or that? To make matters worse, the question or problem that was raised seems really a molehill and I wrote and wrote, trying to make it turn around into something that mattered to the plot.

I think I made the right choice for the character (and a minor one! seriously minor!) but it all seemed pretty muddy. With some seriously happy little bits. Muddy but happy? Ack.

The good news is that I added 5756 words in the past two days, for a total of 13061. To heck with the plot for the moment – this is NaNoWriMo – forge ahead!

It’s another surprising November day outside – warm enough to sit comfortably in the sun and enjoy the rays. Got no complaint at all about that. Yesterday I broke up the marathon writing with a walk

and saw some interesting, if very small things like wooly bear caterpillers of different color configurations and these: