Destination: Procrastination

So.... so, so, so, so... Here it is Sunday, the 7th full day of November and the 7th day of NaNoWriMo. The whole novel-writing caper has been fraught with revelations. Let's review what I've learned so far:
1) It's very, very hard for me to write dialogue.
2) Writing with only the barest sketch of an idea about what might happen and how my characters might develop, flying by the seat of my pants and just "seeing what happens," might sound like a cathartic exercise and rip-roaring good fun, but in reality it sucks huge donkey balls and I can't image how I could have better set myself up to fail. Having a pre-defined plot and, ohIdunno, characters, might actually be a useful thing. Who knew?
3) That whole procrastination-thing that I thought I outgrew back in the late-90s? Yeah, not so much with the outgrowing.

I am behind. Oh, so severely behind. I know, it's shocking. I fell off the wagon last Wednesday, saying things to myself like "I'll catch up at the weekend! I'll spend the whoooole day Sunday writing!" And it might have worked, if I had only missed Wednesday. But then I missed most of Thursday, too, since Kate was sick Thursday night. And still, I thought, "Well, if I just spend all Friday night and all Saturday night writing, too, I can still catch up." But I didn't. And here I am. The NaNo wagon has triumphantly galloped into day 7, but I'm being dragged along by the ankle, somewhere far behind.

People are Facebooking about how they're using their "extra hour" from daylight savings time to push further ahead on their novels. People are posting 5-digit word counts. *I* am here writing a blog post (even though it is SO Jenn's turn to post), and thinking that a warm apple crisp might be welcome this afternoon... if I can get through the next 5,000 words by then. But, first, perhaps another cup of coffee...


(Note: coffee does not come under the heading of procrastination, but rather "adequate preparation." You wouldn't climb Everest without a sherpa, and I can't write without coffee. Amen.)