Day 10: 75 Pages and Stacy's Pita Chips

I got to 75 pages today (actually, to the middle of 76, and if you count imported but unplaced material, 78), which had been my goal by the end of May. My goal by the middle of June is to reach a hundred pages, and here I agree with my friend Dillon that having a hundred pages will be psychologically significant.

Got up at the crack this morning to take Perogi to the vet; she's fine, thank you, and finally, if a bit underweight. I was tired enough that I took a nap for about an hour and a half, which I worried would kill my productivity, but I recovered.

I can get my three pages done, but for that last .75, I need a salty snack, and I've discovered that the perfect one is Stacy's Pita Chips, the kind with just sea salt. They raise my blood pressure *just enough* to finish up. I even wrote four whole pages today as a result of their great salt and crunchiness.

Outside, the trees have leaves and I'm not chilly in a t-shirt. How can I make this last?

Day 9: 70 Pages and Domestic Disputes

After a nice long weekend in which I ate too many toasted marshmallows, I returned to writing today and wrote four full pages. I'm up to page 71 now, 73 if you count the pages I imported from an earlier draft but have not yet placed. I think the sex scene is somewhat improved, and I was pleased to move on to the more conflict-ridden moments (like when she discovers she's pregnant), which I'm much better at writing for some reason. Every guy I know likes the 90s girl band Garbage: I know how to be happy, but I guess I write better about rain.

The habits of my neighbors become more intelligible the longer I sit in one place every day; domestic scuffles, daycare arrangements, single parents in conflict with their exes...it all goes on in the raging emotional maw of Building Six, across from the calm-but-loud Building Four, where we live. The same people walk the same dogs at the same time. The same kids tote the same backpacks into their doors at 2:30. The pregnant woman looks more pregnant every day, though her sick dog appears to have died, since during a fire alarm in that building, she came out with only one. In the dog's last days, it refused to eat anything but Wendy's hamburgers, which she faithfully went out and bought every day. I'm a vegetarian and even I like that story.

Meanwhile, at some point in the last eleven years, a paper wasp (or several) started making a nest in the way-back of my car; I noticed it this weekend when we were unloading groceries. It's unfinished, but what a surprise it must have been for those wasps to come back to where they thought their nest was and discover it gone, or moved several feet, or gone one day and back the next. No sign of the actual insects, but how very strange.

Off to put on my goggles and wetsuit so I can give the dog a bath. It takes a while for a schnauzer to stink, but here it is.

Day 8: 65 Pages and the Lack of Snacks

We have *no* chocolate in the house, which means I just ate a granola bar and I now feel like I swallowed plaster chunks. My kingdom for a cupcake. I'm going to lobby for a trip to Dairy Queen tonight.

Hit page 65 today, though the last two days have been slow going. I still think my sex scene changes the subject too quickly, and today's work involved some ornithology research (the bird science, not the Charlie Parker album). I'm also worried that I may be delving into too much backstory in this one section (more than seven pages worth now); I need to hurry up and get back to the 'dramatic tension.'

Perogi's hard at work on the Nylabone that I need to take away from her because it's too chewed up. We went for a short walk today because it was 90 degrees; I was so worried about her panting that I actually gave up a precious air-conditioning-free hour and turned it on for her. Now it's on for my furnace of a husband, and I'm chilly.

Have a good Memorial Day; I'll be back Wednesday with more from the novelicious front. Hmm, that might be a good name for a band...

Day 7: More Editing, Less New Stuff, and Plenty of Rednecks

I spent a lot of time editing an important section today -- I'm trying to make a somewhat emotional conversation between two men not seem girly. I'm a girl, so that's been kind of a challenge so far.

I wrote about two pages of new stuff, but I also discovered that I am right Puritannical when it comes to writing about sex, and I have no idea why. There was way too much "pan over to the bedside lamp" in the scene I wrote today, and I know I'll go back tomorrow and be annoyed.

There was also a considerable scuffle in our parking lot today between a clearly early-Gen-X man with a mullet and a black '68 convertible and a dude in khakis and a white button-down. The argument seemed to be about who could yell "I don't give a shit" louder. I could almost hear the dueling banjos...

Day Six: Sixty Pages, Sunny, Heartburn

Hit sixty pages today, which is close to 18K words. It was beautiful outside, and I took Perogi for a nice long walk, avoiding the area of our small world where I saw a giant tick jump onto her leg yesterday (and had to wrestle her to the ground to get it off; she doesn't like to be picked at). She's been very good today, letting me work, which I did, from about 11am until just now, 5pm.

After spending the last couple of days writing what is mostly connective tissue, I started a really important section today, and that involved some notetaking, thinking, snacking, and staring into space. It also involved research, mostly on miscarriages (which is creepy and a little strange since one of my friends appears to have had one this week) and on what sheep eat. I also needed to know what sorts of names were popularly given to baby boys in New Hampshire around 1979 or so (the Social Security Administration has a cool website for info like this). But, despite all of the outside work, I got my 3.75 pages done, and am now about a quarter of the way through page 61.

Tonight, my husband is going to set up my new office chair and show me how to use my new jumpdrive. In exchange, I will leave now to go make some dinner!

Days 4 and 5: Baguettes, Lilacs, and 50 Pages

On Monday (Day 4), I put the Pup in the car and headed to my mom's house for lunch. We went to the wonderful french bakery for sandwiches. It's good that I don't live in my hometown anymore, because I would definitely be a baguette-a-day consumer. Also, while we're discussing hedonism, if I could tie a lilac bush to my face and just snort them all day long, I would. I came home, ate more French pastry, and wrote 3.75 pages as usual, which has become a comfortable amount.

Today, Tuesday (Day 5), I got up early and wrote from 10 until about 3:30 (with some breaks in between for lunch, schnauzer walks, and other interruptions, especially peeing; I seem to drink a lot of my classic juice/water combo when I write). I was happy to reach the 50 page mark, and even happier to import several pages from an earlier draft and call it a day at 57 pages. I went out after to get some film developed, and to be the very last person on earth to finally buy a jump drive; my computer already takes 25 minutes to start up, so it's just a matter of time before it quits completely, and I'd rather not lose those 57 pages of which I just spoke. The drive is lime green, which pleases me.

Day 3: Finished Early So I Could Scrapbook

Yes, I do have this really uncharacteristically girly hobby. I wrote about 3.75 pages (still in the hospital! I need to get them out of the hospital...) and then headed to the small town where I grew up to scrapbook with my friend Sue. I brought Perogi, our schnauzer, to play with Sue's four dogs.
We scrapbooked until 5:30, and then went over to the dairy farm where Sue works to visit Seven, a cow who was about to calf (really, any minute; she looked like she would burst). I also patted newborn calves and let them lick my hands (consider my nearly twelve years of vegetarianism reinforced). We picked lilacs and then I grabbed my pup and went home. Productive, creative day.

Day 2: Dr. Novel and Mrs. Reality TV

Walked the dog early because of rainstorms on the way. Thought hard about what kind of a person I'd be if I broke off a branch from one of the lovely flowering trees around our apartment complex, went to a local gardening store and bought rooting hormone, and planted the anointed branch in a big pot to see what happens. Wrote seven pages, a number greatly inflated by cutting-and-pasting from an earlier draft, all of which is a scene in the hospital. I now have about 38 pages, or almost 12K words. I also, cannily enough, worked on a poem. Which makes sense in some ways, since I have a graduate degree in writing poetry.

Broke at six to make fake meatball sandwiches, and to think hard about finding a easy-threading sewing machine, because I think I'd like to make another t-shirt quilt, though I'm not sure how I'll do it without my Sewing Guru, Liz. Also ordered a small scrapbook from creativememories.com to hold pictures of my husband and I on our various adventures.

Wore a sunny yellow t-shirt today, of the sort which is tight enough and long enough, and that you can only get from old navy's website. I won't lie: I also watched America's Next Top Model (go Jaslene), and American Idol (go Blake). I'm not a junkie: we don't even have cable, but lawd if we did, there probably wouldn't even be a novel...just episodes of Designed to Sell and reruns of the movie Phenomenon over and over again...

One Last Reckless Experiment

I'm Sam. I live in a small town in southeastern Massachusetts, and I'm turning 30 in September. I've taken the next four months off to write a novel before thirty-something, productive-age inertia gobbles me up -- it's like a sandstorm, and I can see it coming.

My wonderful husband and small schnauzer support me in this endeavor even though it means turning down extra money that might help get us out of our, in total, ninth apartment in seven years. In case nothing comes of it, or, hell, even if something does, I'll keep a record here.

Day 1: Went to the dentist. Used H&M giftcard at the mall. Walked the dog. Ate too much. Wrote one page where we meet the main character's mother. Watched House, M.D. Rearranged dishes in the sink to a more pleasing configuration. Started a blog.

It's going to be a short summer...