All aboard for the procrastination station!

Well, it's November 1st. First day of National Novel Writing Month. Like a good little NaNoWriMo, I stayed up and began writing at midnight last night. I made it to 1701 words before calling it a night. Just over the daily quota needed to reach 50,000 before midnight November 30. And here I am, 12 hours later, writing in my blog instead of working on my novel. Could it be starting so soon???

Don't get me wrong...I don't have writer's block. In fact, I am excited to see where my characters will go next. Unlike a lot of writers, and going against what I have learned in writing classes, I don't make outlines, and I don't do character sketches. I get to know my characters as the reader would, bit by bit. Sometimes they surprise me with what they do. Why on earth did she say that?? I might ask myself. Other times I might be writing while all the while shouting at my characters to knock it off. I know it's not professional, and I know it's not "right," but then again, what is the "right" way to be creative? I believe that if my characters are to be believable, they need to be as unpredictable and imperfect as any of us are. If they always say and do the right things, where is the excitement? How can anyone connect to impossible perfection, or even perfectly scripted imperfection? Not sure if that makes any sense at all. As far as the current procrastination goes, I have no other explanation other than it is so deeply ingrained in my psyche to put off even those things I am excited about that I just can't help myself.

I'm writing this in a bit of a sleep-deprived stupor. My goal is to make it to 5000 words in my novel today, but I also really really really want to take a nap. I should clean as well, but those of you who know me will know where that ranks on my list of things to do. Novel, then nap, then novel some more, then...well, the cleaning probably just won't happen today.

I blame Halloween in part for my sleeplessness. I know I know, I stayed up late writing, but then once I went to bed I was just a bit creeped out. See, last night I watched the movie "Orphan" with some friends. I am not much into horror flicks. I tend to laugh through them, and pretty much annoy anyone I'm watching with. I really thought I was okay with the whole creepy movie on Halloween thing. I only closed my eyes at the bloody parts, because really, who needs to see blood spattering every 5 minutes? I came home around 11:30, glad that I left a light on, and went about my business getting ready to start writing. I walked back toward my bedroom and happened to catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. And my heart stopped. Because for a moment I swore there was someone standing in the doorway of my second bedroom. Of course, it was just one of my bridesmaids dresses hanging on the door. Why on earth would a knife-wielding (did I mention that in my moment of insanity I imagined the door-lurker to be holding a knife??) psycho be waiting in my apartment? I was able to laugh at myself after, but I admit my pride was punctured just a bit. Me, the tough girl who isn't scared by anything, practically brought to her knees by a dress. Of course, in my infinite wisdom, I chose to text Phyllis and share my humiliation, and now I've shared with anyone who happens to read this. Hey, we can all use a little humility, right?

And now, it's time to stop this procrastination train and get off. Back to NaNoWriMo. 1701 words written, 48,299 to go! Wish me luck!

(Dear Phyllis: Hey, this was hardly random at all! Proud of me???)