I Think My Goal Is To Write 1,700 Words In Here Per Day

Now I've backed myself into a bit of a corner. I had my first moment of NaNoWriMo where I typed something completely unexpected. While my narrator was pontification on how often he used words in the past tense, I came to this realization (scarily, I almost wrote "he"):

"But I’ve used the word were too much. It’s like rewinding to a time when I knew them as Kate and Andy, as opposed to Kate…and Andy. Maybe I tip my hand too much in that they don’t get back together. I’m not the best at foreshadowing even though one of the advantages to being a Little Green Envelope is that I get to see everything at once. I know that you humans are all thinking that this is how the narrative arc is going to go. But this isn’t the story of Kate and Andy. This is the story of Kate…and Andy."

So, crap. I had the original thought of the story that they got back together at the end and he ends up back at their apartment for a happy ending. Now they don't get back together at the end. I try not to write predictable endings but I think for once my novel is supposed to have a happy ending at least. So now I have to find a way to get Kate and Andy both happy and both growing as people separately. And I guess that's the reality of a situation like they're in. From what I've written so far, I could have had them realize they needed to adapt a little piece of each other that they themselves were lacking. I had that happen in my 2004 novel even though that didn't have a happy ending.

I guess telling two disparate storylines ends up with a higher word count. But I'm trying not to write to the competition this year. That just ended up making me miserable last year with the finished product.

Though this year's competition is going to be huge. Chicago, New York, and Toronto buoyed by MLs who support the competition may have 50 people. Being team captain, I at least have to try really hard to get way about 50,000.

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Speaking of word counts, I wrote the following bit of old NaNoWriMo experience in one of the forums. It's about daily word counts:

Per day word counts don't work.

If you miss a day, you end up trying to double up. Or triple up - or quadruple up.
I don't aim for words per day, I try for scenes per day. Or, even parts of scenes per day. Today, for example, I was going to write this fight between my two protagonists. No matter how many words it took. I got tired so it was only 1,500 and it's not done yet. So tomorrow I finish the fight (I did stop it at a logical point, when the initial aggrevation ended) and I'm going to try and write two other scenes as well.

Also, I write to word goals. My first goal for tomorrow, for example, will be 5,000 (right now I'm at 4,180) so the fight will probably be about 820 more words. 5,000 is also the end goal for day three in the 1,667 method but this is coincidental.

If you write in this method, you're not watching the counter and it's amazing how much faster the words pile up. If you stop once you get your 1,667 it means you're probably ending mid-stream and might find it hard to pick back up.

And I stand completely behind that. Chances are if you are checking your word counter (I almost said, "if you humans are checking your word counters") than you're not really enjoying what you're writing. If you're in the flow, just go with it. If that means you write only 500 words in a day than you do. Some other day you'll probably be closer to 5,000 when you hit a word vein.

So call me cynical but, hey, I've completed this thing three times so what's to say I'm wrong?

I know people have completed it writing right around 1,700 words per day, but it's a dangerous precipice.