I have 1,616 words to write this evening to stay on target for NaNaWriMo. So far I’m slightly ahead of schedule. Because I don’t know much about writing a romance, I researched it.
There are certain milestones that make a romance book travel. So far, my characters are approaching “second refusal” at the end of chapter three. That will probably hit at about the 10,000 word mark.
So far Naomi (beginner witch in a midlife crisis) and Duncan (big, blue incubus looking for a break) are getting along well. After a a good, platonic sleep they have eaten three bags of pastry (and much of Naomi’s grocery budget) and Duncan is settling down on the couch for an afternoon of catching up on shows he misses… like Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
At some point, Naomi will have to pick some clothes up for him. He arrived wearing nothing but a well worn leather thong, which he hand washed and hung over Naomi’s kitchen sink to dry. His job hasn’t required much more from him as far as wardrobe until now. As Naomi has accidentally granted him an indefinite stay, he may need better duds sooner than later.
With that, I peel myself away from the election stats to see what happens next.
UPDATE: Success! When I find it impossible to concentrate I’ll play a binaural beats playlist on Youtube and listen to it with headphones so everything else is muted. It always works. Tonight I struggled for about two hours to write a paragraph. Elections, Facebook, texts… too many distractions. Binaural beats on, and in an hour I had 2143 words of the 1616 goal. That was 527 more words than I needed, and I love where the story went.
If you are interested in how binaural beats work, here’s an article I wrote for Evolving Magazine (May 2019). If you ever want to try it, the exact music I listened to tonight is below.