Blogging NaNoWriMo 2014: Hello Halfway Point

I say this every year I think. In 2011 I wrote the perfect mid-point post which involved Dumbo - you can read it here.

Now, to say something new... Well, I'm running a couple of days ahead of schedule, which is very good considering I'm still aiming to finish the whole draft of this novel, however long it turns out to be, before December. My average is just over 2,000 a day and, really, I'm keeping up the pace by late night sprints. It's lucky my characters have finally started talking to me. Last night, for instance, my chapter plan involved one of my protagonists walking into chaos at the residential home and the words just sprang from my fingers - over 2300 words in an hour and a bit. Given the pressures I'm putting myself under every day, I'm proud of keeping ahead here.

So what next? Well, I have another four and a bit chapters planned out then, beyond that, another pivotal problem has to occur. The hurdles for my protagonists up to this point have primarily been internal but an external force is going to cause merry hell for them - and I'm looking forward to it. I don't have a sense of how many chapters this whole thing's going to take but I'm currently on chapter eight and have planned up to chapter twelve. It's all very exciting. And, by 'exciting' I mean draining.

I tell you what'd be good though - if life would stop chucking rocks at me for the duration of NaNo. I'm struggling to keep my head above water and the short, sharp shocks aren't helping much. On that note, I need to go to Sheffield for a supervisor meeting...