As of this writing, I am at 18,387 words! Yes! Though, today being November 15, exactly mid-month, I should be at 25,000! No! However, I am not so worried. Because, win or lose, I discovered a lot of things this week.

I discovered that I cannot write with the Internet on. It is impossible. I don’t _mean_ to procrastinate, of course. But it is very easy to do when you have two chat programs, two browsers, and a dual monitor setup.

I also discovered that I write very well on pen and paper. I find myself writing pages and pages - albeit slower than if I were typing, but at least there are no distractions AND no “let’s go back and edit yesterday’s work one more time” syndrome. I can also take the pen and paper with me anywhere. Sure, I waste some valuable day time typing out what I’ve just handwritten. But at least I’m moving forward. (In fact, I’ve written twice as much this week than I did last week!)

And this week, my characters have been doing crazy things, too. Since Rue crashed on the GraviNet, she’s discovered the City Below (I still need a name), and is caught in a tug of war between two gangs who promise her safe passage back to her city. I also discovered that, now that Rue is meeting more characters, this is becoming less like interactive fiction and more like a real novel. But rather than force it to go a particular direction, I will see where Rue takes me.

Now the only thing I have to do is catch up with my word count - for all her frolicking, Rue is still 6,613 words behind. Easier said than done, but I just have to keep on fighting! (Now, to turn off that Internet…)