Day 19: Caught Up

I am not only caught up, I am 478 words ahead. Managed 3,908 words today. Part of me feels like I should stay up a few more minutes and get those last 92 words in to have an even 4,000 for the day. But then again, sleep sounds nice.

Got a pretty good writing session in at the Coffee Table in Eagle Rock. I love their chicken salad sandwich. Only complaint about the location: it was freezing. It's time to turn off the AC. It's two days till Thanksgiving. I know this is southern California and everything, but let's at least pretend it's winter. Gotta say, around this time of year, I actually do miss East Coast winters. Then when I remember slipping on ice and freezing my ass off, I get over it and remember why I love being back in LA. Still, there is no such thing as winter here. It's just a cold version of summer. Now, if it would rain occasionally, I might believe fall is an actual season again.

As for my novel, things are plugging along. Might have a small problem. I'm having some point of view issues. The original plan had been to have it 3rd person from the perspective of my female main character. Then along the way, a second character emerged as a point of view character. And now to make it more complicated, a third character has decided to have a point of view in all this as well. I'm having trouble writing this without dipping into all their heads to round it out. But at the same time, I'm not delving into each of their heads equally so it's not balanced enough to justify all three. I can see splitting the different POVs with chapter breaks. I don't think there would be a problem there. I'm more worried about balance.

I know it's a little early to be worried about this. This is only a draft. But this is a problem I kind of envisioned before I started, and now I find myself wading knee deep in it. I'm not going to do anything about it at this point. I'm just going to let whatever POV that wants to come out come out. I'll deal with it in the rewrite. There is also the lingering issue of whether or not I actually should be writing this in 1st person POV instead. I've opted for 3rd because I see its merits and the shortcomings of 1st. But still I'm wondering. I'm considering doing a complete rewrite, or at least the first half, in the 1st person POV just to make sure that it isn't right for this story. We'll see.

For now, the virtue of being in too many characters' heads is that it gives me more story. At 30,000+ words, I feel like I'm only about a third of the way into this story; if that. I know I'm looking at at least 100K for a first draft. Yes, there will be lots of crap that will have to go; but I still need that crap so I can find the good crap.

Okay, getting ahead of myself. I'm thinking I need the new Great Northern album. I've been listening to clips and have one of their songs; all of which I've liked so far. Last year, every day that I stayed on track with NaNo I rewarded myself with an iTunes download. Haven't had a similar reward system this year. But maybe buying the album will be justified as my little reward for finally catching up.