6 November 2010. Yes, this is only Day Six of a 30 day exercise. But, it's a Saturday, so I feel like the week is already over. How have I been doing?

I've been doing well. Thanks for asking. The final word target for my novel is around 100,000 words. It has 76 plot points, and four viewpoint characters. I started plotting it in last July and had to slow down in September because I was itching to start writing it.

I thought I was going to fall behind today. I took Nathan swimming and the kids to the Natural History Museum in D.C. I ended up taking a four-hour nap this afternoon. None of this is conducive to reaching an allegedly daunting word goal. To make matters worse, I ran out of steam in NaNoWriMo 2008 around 35Kwords.

As it turns out, I'm ahead by 422 words. As you're reading a few hundred words here, I'm obviously still writing. Just not on the novel. I'm trying not to write too much in one shot this time, listening to my inner Tortoise. I started writing just after midnight on 1 November, and each night wrote for about 45 minutes at night followed by 45 minutes when I first awoke. Each time I reached my daily word goal by 7 o'clock in the morning.

I have finished ten of the 76 plot points, and have written 10,424 words (today's goal is 10,002). I'm averaging 1,042 words per plot point, which means I'm tracking a finished first draft around 79,000 words. For Imbroglio, I was tracking a first draft of only 50,000 words.

More importantly, I finished the storyline the fourth viewpoint character Janhas Klocards. He had nine points dedicated to telling his harrowing story of inventing a hyperspatial radar. This morning, while Nathan swam, I pounded out most of the introduction of Jonaldy Amonett, the villain. I finished it a couple of hours ago. I exceeded my word count this morning while writing in an indoor swimming pool for 30 minutes.

Yes, it helped that I was ahead yesterday. But, I'm ahead today, too. And, I'll be writing more this evening when the kids are in bed.