Yesterday was a good day, or rather yesterday evening was. I’ve realised that despite the apparent bliss of having the house to myself all day with nothing to do but write, the wordcount increases more easily in the evenings when the husband and son are at home making a racket. I plug in my noise-reducing headphones and get cracking. As a result I’ve made it all the way up to the dizzy heights of 36,101.

Today was less successful again. I think I’m tired from last night’s writing marathon, and I’m starting to encounter plot bombs that are likely to go off in about 15,000 words unless I deal with them now. Plot bombs like “why doesn’t she just…?” and things like that. I need to find an answer now or else it may put the ending in jeopardy.

(I still don’t have an ending. Don’t worry. It will turn up.)

Aiding me in the evening writing is a wonderful program called, jauntily, ‘Write or Die‘. You set the number of words you want to write (say, 1,000) as well as the time limit (say 20 mins). You can set these separately so you’re either working to a time limit OR a wordcount, but I find it sharpens the mind further if you set both. You can select the severity of your potential punishment (ranging from Gentle to Kamikaze), and the grace period before these punishments are brought in (forgiving, strict or evil). Then you write.  If for any reason you find yourself staring into space, the consequences begin with your screen flashing a horrible shade of red, continue on to loud noises like babies screaming and, if you still don’t knuckle down and get writing again, sooner or later it will start deleting what you’ve already written, one painful word at a time.

It’s been very productive on the occasions I can tear myself away from Facebook to use it.

By the end of tomorrow I will be at 43,000.

If I don’t manage it, then… I will throw out all the chocolate in the house (and there’s quite a lot).