Chapter 5 was (except for scene 5 with Mindy and Noopie) a slog to write. I averaged about 350 words per hour. It came out mostly okay, I think, but it was no fun to write. Bleah!

Chapter 6 (coming soon) was a different story altogether. True, it was a slog like Chapter 5. And like Chapter 5 it was no fun to write. But unlike Chapter 5 it didn’t come out mostly okay. It came out poopie. True NaNo-quality poop. I’m struggling to adopt Katster’s cheerful admonition to “embrace the suck!”

But given that it sucks, I may as well embrace it, eh?

Scene 2 in particular went awry. I started writing it, hated it, set it aside, and wrote scenes 3 and 4 instead. When I came back to scene 2 I realized that it the logic of the timing was just plain wrong. So my characters lamented that I had made them so stupid—and I included their laments in the scene and abandoned it.

And then a murkle happened. I decided to interview some of my characters. That turned out to be really fun, really fast, and really interesting. I got 4000+ words of juicy stuff in under four hours. I didn’t know I could write that fast. And Dan in particular has some real attitude that I didn’t know about. I think (I hope, at least) it’s going to make writing him more fun in the near future.

So that’s that. Chapter Six: no fun. Interviews: wicked good fun.

Now: on with the show.