November 25, 2010 My draft Scintilla reached a key milestone today. As I'm competing in NaNoWriMo, the goal was to complete at-least 50,000 words by 30 November. Adjusting for some noise, my word count was 50,060 last night. It was a pretty big deal, so I stopped mid-scene. I wrote over 4,800 words yesterday alone. Now what? I still have at least 45,000 words to finish the first draft. I endeavor to continue writing as fast as I can.

The day started off a little concerningly yesterday. Mondennio, the Hero, had to have certain things happen so he could face the first Disaster. I had to do some quick plot surgery to make that happen. In the end, one scene had to be moved about to line everything up. That took nearly three hours. After responding to family obligations, I had fewer than five hours to write. As it turns out, I seem to be able to put down about 1,000 words per hour on paper (16 WPM) when the plot is in good order.

Of course, as authors know, the first draft is at least two revisions from the final. As soon as I get this draft complete, I am going to compile it and print it out. It's important to let these things cool off, so I will return to my abandoned first draft of Imbroglio.