This month, in addition to being National Novel Writing Month, is also National Journal Writing Month, which I didn’t know until Carol mentioned it in the comments. And actually, when I went to look it up, I discovered that the National Journal Writing site wanted October to be the month; the National Blogging Post Month — aka NaBloPoMo — are using November. Whatever. Some people are writing or posting a journal/blog post every month and I didn’t know that before, but now that I do — yay, that’s a bandwagon I can jump on. So in addition to trying to make National Novel Writing Month numbers this month, I’m going to try to post a blog post every day. I suspect the latter will be easier than the former.

Yesterday, I finished the day with 1085 words. I’m okay with that. I’m slightly less okay with the fact that they were words for the same chapter that I’d written the previous day. I just couldn’t not delete. The previous day’s words… they didn’t work. It was lots of disjointed conversation, much of which could have carried the dialogue tag “explained”. The dialogue guy at the Florida Writer’s Association Conference suggested that all dialogue that should use “explained” as its verb be rethought and yeah, I rethought. My chapter had potential for energy, but it lost all that energy in discussions that related to world-building. Who spoke in what language, who understood what language, what different types of ghosts there were… yawn.

In context, the loss of energy was very literal, if opposite in its effects. Energetic ghosts suck the warmth out of the air. That would mean that they slow down the molecules in the air. My ghosts were not effectively stealing the warmth, but they were definitely slowing down the action. In yesterday’s chapter, they did a much better job of making it cold, and without slowing everything down. (I’m amused by the different meanings/uses of energy, but I suspect I’m not making sense here — sorry!)

Word count wise, I decided not to freak myself out. I’m including the words from both days in my count. I wrote them and I could include them in one long terrible scene for the NaNo word count purposes without feeling any sense of dishonesty, if I wasn’t worried about my novel being awful. It does mean that I’m already behind. Not going to worry about that, though. There’s plenty of time to catch up and maybe I’ll find the current today and have it whisk me along.

Meanwhile, it turns out that October 30th was not the last swim day of the year. Yesterday, in the peak of my frustration, unable to figure out how to fix the scene, I went outside, decided it was warm enough, and spent a very pleasant, very lovely hour or so floating in the pool. I am fairly sure I’ve never swum in November before but it was exceedingly nice. I’m grateful for the day.

In the evening, I went and hung out with my niece at the library. We went to Denny’s for dinner and Denny’s has added gluten-free indicators to its menu. I was so pleased that I ate gluten-free french fries with ketchup, disregarding the fact that nightshades cause joint inflammation which cause pain. Last night, when I was trying to sleep and my hands were throbbing, I thought it was still worth it, but this morning, when I tried to get out of bed, wow, not so much. Joint pain was at “not sure I can walk right now” levels and even as I type, part of me is aware of how much I hurt. It feels like I did an intense workout yesterday, but since I didn’t, I’m blaming the french fries. Alas. But I mostly write this as a reminder to myself — don’t be stupid. Potatoes aren’t worth it.

Today’s goals: words, words, words. Getting out of this chapter and back to Noah’s POV. Going to yoga if I can loosen up enough that I think it won’t be more pain than it’s worth. Walking the dogs and making my bed and eating only AIP-approved foods. All good goals! I’m hoping for a good day, despite its rocky start. Good luck to my fellow NaNo and NaJo ‘ers — I hope you find the current!