18,557 Words-Watching the Pieces Become Whole

My front yard looks like a faery land this morning. The lawn is covered with dandelions that have gone to seed, the roses are dreaming up their final color, pale yellow, pink and the peace rose the color of shells in the moonlight. All of this is wrapped in the first, cold fog of winter.

I have a confession. I love November. October in Ashland is incredible, the air turns crisp and the leaves change colors, but the sun still shines and the sky is still that unbelievable blue that very often truly hasn’t got a cloud in it. When November comes everything gets soft. The colors mute and the lion colored grass turns a gentler brown. And then the fog comes, soft and wreathing, the color of pearls. November is a soft time. A dreaming kind of time. It is quiet, and still and nestled with fog.

I have another confession. I wrote all night. I know, I know. I’m not really pushing for numbers, but I had a chapter that wouldn’t happen all day and suddenly at about midnight it started pouring. This is really turning out to be the most fascinating process. I knew that this chapter had to end in a certain place, but I had no idea on earth how I was going to get there. At six o’clock this morning I finished it, slap, bang, boom - just as if I were watching a movie, there it was, that was the way it was supposed to be. It was perfect. And I can sleep all day. How is that for being a retired writer?

I don’t know if the pieces of this puzzle are actually ever going to go together, but it is intriguing to watch each piece become whole. Isn’t that strange, that I say “watch?” That is what it feels like sometimes. I feel much less like I am “making” this and more like I am watching it happen.

Well, NaNoWriMo says that I am at 18,557, so I’m nearing the 20,000 mark. It’s just as well, because I am taking my one and only break next weekend and going on a road trip with my daughter to Seattle. I still have research that needs to be done on this story, but as long as the show is going on, I think I’ll keep watching, keep moving my fingers and getting it down.

And incidently, backing it up to a second hard drive and taking two hard copies. I’m not paranoid, I’m just getting smarter.