Day 9 of writing and the book before the book

Instead of editing, I am taking some NaNoWriMo advice and charging through...it'll keep my word count up ;-)   According to "No Plot, No Problem" the second week is often a time when people get tired of their characters.  They start to "cheat" and want to start from scrap.  I fortunately do not feel that way but it is nice to be prepared...

To give me something to focus on, I decided to compile notes, pictures and sketches that will "remind" me of the book that I am writing...Since I can not write about what the book is about yet, here is a page out of my notebook:

My characters will have their own profile pages too.  

I can carry this notebook around and write memos if anything "comes to me" while I'm out and about.  I love pasting things to my journal so the process is something I like to do. 

Kind of like a scrapbook!

word count: 7,523

Days 7 and 8 of writing and the beginning of week 2

Days 5 and 6 were spent away from the keyboard but the time I spent in my mind was rather fruitful.  Although it was another tiring day at "the office" I managed to come home , make dinner, blog a bit and write.  

The "word for today" on day 7 was (according to the widget on my blog) grit.  Besides (noun) coarse dirt or sand, or (verb) clench, it also means fortitude and determination and can mean fearlessness too.  

It was a fortune cookie moment for me when I saw the word grit.

So, I grit my teeth and rearranged my thoughts and continued writing.  I did not get caught up with the original count goal but my adrenaline has  been pumping harder as the story outline is finally being sketched.  

Chapter 6 of No Plot, No Problem (week 2) says a lot but if I get into the details here it might ruin it for some people who haven't read the book.  So, I'll just say that according to Baty, it is OK that you don't have a plot by week 2...  

Now, this makes me raise my eyebrows so high they hit the sky.  I think the point is to get all that writing that was bottled up in you, out there, regardless of quality.  I must admit it was like turning on the water at a rusty spigot and having all of the old brown water spew out.  It is icky, but since I have left that Edit Monster at the gate it doesn't really bother me!  After a while the water should start to clear up...I hope.

However, for me, going on any further without a plot seems outrageous.   I am going to add a little bit if my own "wisdom" here and take a day to write my mind map for the story.  My word count is at a little over 6,000 (not good for the end of day 8 but I still feel comfortable.)

I'll try to add a bit of my mind map and my latest word count by the end of today, day 9 of writing the "strangest book ever".