Proposed Write-in Dates through End of November

Also posted on the NaNoWriMo New Jersey regional forum:

I propose three write-in dates, all at the Barnes and Noble at Brunswick Square Mall in East Brunswick:

Saturday the 19th, 5-9pm

Monday the 21st, 8:30-11pm

Monday the 28th, 8:30-11pm

Brunswick Square Mall is on Route 18. If you're far enough away to be unfamiliar with Route 18, your best bet is probably to take the Turnpike to Exit 9, from which you take 18 South until you find the Mall on your right.

As we discovered tonight, power outlets are not available to customers, so charge your laptop before leaving home.

Also, the large plate glass windows leak heat like nobody's business. Dress warmly.

There is, however, coffee, good company, and abundant parking.

On Saturdays, it can be hard to get a table, which is why I propose starting when most of the Saturday regulars will be leaving for dinner. Mondays are nice and quiet, though.

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Many thanks to those of you who came out tonight. It was good to meet you guys in person.

In Which Sarah Refuses Orthodoxies of Several Kinds

Nine longhand pages, most produced after 1am by candlelight. Why candlelight? Because I'm out of lamp oil, of course.
600some words straight into laptop, most produced during write-in.

I understand the benefits of privileging quantity over quality in an exercise like Nanowrimo. And yes, the 1st draft must be shitty, no matter how it gets produced. But a lot of the standard word count boosting strategies that are in common use by my fellow Nanowrimo cultists just freeze my brain up, even though I know there are other people who feel unlocked by them. I'm quite content to fail, even to fail laughably, on the first pass, but I don't have it in me to try things I know take the story in the wrong direction. There is a difference between writing a rough draft and, on the other hand, writing badly on purpose. Thinking that I would have to write badly on purpose in order to make 50K by 30 November has been intermittently paralyzing over the past couple of days.

The story got unstuck again the moment I said to myself, well, I'd still like to hit the 50K mark by the end of the month, and I'm still aiming for that, but I'll do it my way or not at all. Practice, failure, and play are acceptable. Acting in bad faith is not.

I think I just blew it as a Nanowrimo cultist.