Nano - Day 20. A Challenge.

Okay. I figured out how I'm going to get through this thing.

Two days. 17K words per day.

I consider it practice for next year - I want to join the half million club next year. That pace is 17K per day.

Theoretically, I can do this no problem. After doing the 50K in a Day last year, my notion of what is possible has exploded. But, doing 17K every single day will definitely be a challenge. I'll have to have everything outlined and very well set up. I even have a rough plot, something I was supposed to start last year.

The truth of myself is that I'm more of a sprinter, not a marathon runner.

I'm really good at short, sharp bursts of energy, not sustained energy over time. Even now, after I'm done with the current draft of my story, I'll have to admit to myself that it's still only a kernel of an idea. Some serious reworking will be required before it's anything that can stand up on its own. More work than I've ever done on a piece of writing.

It's something that I'm worrying about with songwriting as well. How do you take something that is currently a good idea to being as good as it can be?

I feel like I'm in a dark, locked room, feeling around on the walls for a doorknob. Or a window that I can let up. Something that might let some air in. Now it's just...dark.

I pulled out two of my favorite books, Martin Amis's The Information, and John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. I'm worrying over which to dive into first (when I have DeLillo's Underworld and Gruber's The Forgery of Venus also calling my name).

It's been a sad morning - I spent it watching David Foster Wallace show his soft, flayed, yearning, eager humanity on Charlie Rose. Still feeling quite devastated over his suicide.

j.