Give me a U-P-D-A-T-E! (Shaking pompoms...)

Hard to believe, my friends, but this is the last week of the crazy 'write a novel in one month' journey I've been taking. A week from today, I will hopefully be getting my numbers verified on the nanowrimo website, at which point, I will be officially declared a 'winner'. Okay, no, you don't actually win anything, except for bragging rights.

I'll be able to say that I wrote a novel in a month. And trust me, I plan to say that alot. ;-) Plus, if I decide to re-visit the madness next November, I'll have a neat little badge next to my name on the website.

My current word count is... drum roll, please... 38,525 words. I'm on track to get to 50,000 by Saturday, which will leave Sunday for me to get ready for Libby's birthday party and making the Daisy Duck cake that she wants. How does that saying go? Is it 'no rest for the weary?' or 'no rest for the wicked?' Either way... there's no rest.

My novel will NOT be finished at 50,000 words, I'm almost certain, as I appear to be especially 'wordy'...which of course, you all knew. But I will attempt to write through to the conclusion of the story, and I can just go back and fill in later. That is the suggestion on the website, and I think its a valid one. What do I know? This is my first novel, and they've been doing this for awhile. At this point, I'll take all the suggestions I can get. ;-)

My reading team is doing a great job of keeping me motivated, and the e-mails saying, "Next chapter, please!!" give me hope that I'm weaving together a story for someone other than myself.

This is really a lot harder than I thought it would be, which I guess is why so many people kick off the month with great intentions, but so few actually finish. 1700 words a day doesn't sound that difficult when you say it out loud, but when you consider that it's 1700 fresh, brand new words that I have to pull out of my head everyday, forming them into dialogue, description, and plot development, it's a bigger challenge than I had initially thought.

But I will finish. And I will continue to love it. And I think I might have finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up. ;-)