I…splurged today

Yeah, I did.  3,841 words over the past two days–but since I only wrote about 300 words yesterday, that means I did about 3,500 words today.  That brings the total word count of this novel up to 41,251 so far.  Holy. Cow.

It seems like whenever I write for only ten minutes, I find it really hard to write very much, since my mind isn’t really into the story, or I’m a little bit confused as to what’s happened in the last few pages, or maybe I’m just not all that motivated when I first sit down.  But once I reach a critical mass on the page, things just spill out like a flood.  After a while, I don’t even have much of a desire to do anything else.  I’ve just GOT to finish that one scene–and after it, another one–and then another–yeah, and it just keeps going.

It started yesterday, when I worked a little bit on that one scene that had got me excited a while before.  But I didn’t have much time to work on it, since I was on campus and had a couple of appointments to go to.  Man, I am CRAZY busy!  So then, all evening, I wanted to write, but instead I was responsible and worked on my homework.  Then, midnight came, and I gave a friend of mine a ride back from his girlfriend’s house (she lives a couple of miles away, south of campus, and hey, I feel bad that they always walk, so I give them rides.  Don’t worry, they’re not taking advantage of me at all, he helps out with gas all the time, and we’re actually good friends by now).  Then, I was hanging out with my Arab friends, and of course that takes time, but I was enjoying myself and it was good to see them, we ate at Betos and relaxed for a while), and then, when I got back, it was 1:30 am, and I was pretty tired.  Considering the fact that I needed to get up at about 7:15 am, I decided to go to bed without writing.

But really, in my heart of hearts, I just wanted to write in this novel of mine.

So then, today, all day I had this strong desire that hadn’t been satisfied the night before.  I took about an hour of free time in the morning and used it to write.  It was awesome!  So much fun!  I finished the one scene that was really exciting to me, then had a good idea for another scene to happen just before this one.  But…other duties called me elsewhere.  So then, I went and fulfilled that duty, came back, tried to do some homework…but just wasn’t all that motivated.  I accomplished a little, but not too much.  Went to lunch, then classes, then took a nap in the aptly named wajibaat cave (the little room with the green couches in the HLRC–it’s kind of the Arabic student’s hangout place), then went to a computer and sat down…and wrote for two hours.

But then, just as I was REALLY getting into it…had to go again.  And again.  And after dinner, I TRIED to do my homework–I really did!–but man, it was hard to find the motivation.  I did some, accomplished a bit, procrastinated a bit, the usual, but then around midnight I gave into the temptation to write…and I finished this scene just a few minutes ago.  And MAN.  I am happy!

I feel bad that I’m falling behind a bit in doing my Arabic homework.  However, I don’t feel all that bad because I know that my language skills really are improving.  I can feel it.  So, really, even though I didn’t finish everything that I was supposed to do, I’m doing the stuff that counts.  And other than my Arabic class, I’m not all that worried.

Life is good, man!  And I freaking just wrote 3,500 words in a single night!  At this rate, the novel will be finished by winter break!  Man, I’ve got to slow down, otherwise I’ll have to start a new project for English 318!