Forty-one more words

Hey everyone! Greetings from the 2012 Muskoka Novel Marathon in truly beautiful downtown Huntsville!

I am having a glorious time. The food is FANTASTIC, I mean INCREDIBLE (even if you don't write two words, the food is worth the drive).

My fellow writers are smart and talented and working their collective butts off. I mean, some of them are crazy, just pure crazy. I always thought I was a pretty fast writer. HA! So this is how it works: everyone writes double spaced in a common font in 14 pt. Whenever a writer finishes 10 pages, he or she writes their name and their page count thus far on a little slip of paper and posts it on a bookshelf.

I just finished 40 pages. I'm thinking I'm all that and a bag of chips. But noooooooooo - there are writers here who have finished 120 PAGES in the same time that I've done 40. Holy page count, Batman!

I don't know how they do it. I mean, I've asked and they give me reasons like the whole book has been in their heads for months and now it's just spewing out but, come on! I don't even think I can TYPE fast enough to produce 120 pages in so few hours!

I try to tell myself that they're just repeating "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country," but these people are experienced, published, talented writers and they are just CRANKING out the joy juice they call writing.

Well, kudos to them. There's no way in hell I can write that fast so I try not to pay any attention when they're posting 10 new pages every 10 minutes.

Anyway, I am doing absolutely FINE! I am only 41 words away from writing my hoped-for goal of 8,000 words today. And last night I cranked out 2,500. So I'm doing well and I'm absolutely pumped that I will meet my 8,000 word target again tomorrow.

Of course my real target is finishing my novel and I have to say it's within my grasp. The stuff I'm writing now is the very stuff of wrap-up. The beginnings of endings. It's all rather heady and wonderful and I'm happy as a pig in you-know-what.

Well, I have to go. They're about to announce the fundraising winners and after that is dinner. When that's all done with, I'm going to write a while longer, find 41 words or so deep in what's left of my tired heart, and meet my target.

This is a wonderful time to be a writer and I'm so proud to be here.