First Couple Days of Progress

by syaffolee

Ah, National Novel Writing Month. Where would the year be without it? After over a decade of participating, it would be weird if I didn’t do it. It’s on par with Christmas. No, wait. It’s bigger than Christmas. I definitely do not spend this much time prepping for Santa Claus season.

I am currently very much behind, despite my participation in the official NaNoWriMo word sprints feed over on Twitter. However, I will say that I’m slowly catching up. This, I feel, is par the course for me. I start out slowly and build up steam throughout the month. And because of this, I’m not stressed about my novel. At the moment.

This year, I’m also doing something a little different in regards to technology. I’m trying to write the novel entirely on a netbook using Word Pad which has no word count function. Supposedly, this will give me less chance of distraction. But this says nothing about the people around me.

And as for that…this was the first time I’ve gotten so mad I physically wanted to deck a guy. At this morning’s write-in, in which I was the sole participant, there was some old guy at the next table being foul-mouthed, racist, and playing loud obnoxious talk radio over the cafe’s soft rock background music. Some other guy, fortunately, called him on it, but I just had to leave before I did something I regretted. I am normally a laid back person and while there are things that annoy me, they just provoke brief irritation before I let it roll off my back.

But this…no. I have no tolerance for intolerance.

Anyways, enough of the ranting…

* * *

For the curious, here’s the opening paragraph of Nine at Night, a biopunk western:

The train disgorged the mail-order brides who fluttered into the station like a flock of nervous pastel-colored doves. Nine Lily Rendell hung back a few paces. She looked no different than the others in her light blue-gray traveling frock, matching hat, and purse. But it wasn’t an ordinary purse. It contained a Colt single action .45 with several bullets loaded in the chamber. One of those bullets was intended for her would-be husband.