Day Six

12:19 AM - 9,146. Had to trim off a word from the last sentence. For aesthetic purposes, because if Kirk means nothing to you then Captain Kirk is a waste of two words instead of one. Trying to hit 9,500 before bed...

12:41 Am - 9,525. No disintegrations. Except, maybe, when the Time Displacement Generator is involved.

12:54 AM - 9,708. Can’t even read the words on the screen. Eyes just watering and not working at all. Think I’m averaging ten words per minute, or something terrible like that. Latenight math was never my thing.

9:04 AM - 9,708. On the bus. Started carrying a Fisher space pen in my pocket at all times now. I like the idea that I can be prepared any sort of ink-based adventure, but I’m also all too aware the the ink cartridge is pressurized and just waiting to explode in my favorite pair of pants. Living dangerously, eh?

9:35 AM - 10,006. Four words past today’s quota, and I plan on devoting much of the night to finishing this first segment of the book. If I could get to 15,000 I’d be very pleased.

11:36 AM - 10,084. Had to slip a new paragraph in before shifting focus to some essay for school. At twenty pages now. Twenty pages of 11.5 Times New Roman with 1.5 line spacing. Easily the longest single piece of fiction I have ever written, and I’m only getting started. So far I haven’t run into any troubles, and have not felt any sense of dread or creeping doom. Instead, I’ve just been very motivated. But how long can I maintain?

1:00 PM - 10,213. Trying to throw down some key dialogue before/during class. Got all my schoolwork out of the way for the weekend, so I’m extending my probably ridiculously over-optimistic goal to 18,000 by Monday morning.

1:11 PM - 10,348. Class dismissed early. Time to sprint to the bus stop, ride home, make a pbj and head over to Yellowhouse, to really open the fictive floodgates. Maybe there’s a stop at the grocery store, for Nutella, thrown in there too.

1:38 PM - 10,348. On the bus, the computer’s battery dying quickly, and I can’t shake the feeling that one of the characters is speaking like David Bowie. His accent, I mean. Or inflection, whichever.

1:45 PM - 10,502. Star Wars reference: check. “You may fire when ready.”

2:00 PM - 10,662. Done with part one, it would seem. Thought maybe I could stretch it out to 15,000, but it was having none of that. Probably start in on part three next, as I’m not entirely sure what to do with part two yet.

3:45 PM - 10,666. Had to add those four words just now. Currently engaged in a battle to hash out the details of part two. At Yellowhouse, but unable to enjoy solitude or painful volumes due to the others here, working on the kitchen. First hi*ball consumed, this one lemon-lime. Got three more in the fridge, should I need them tonight.

4:23 PM - 10,727. Been working away on the outline for part two and the current chapter and as a result, not getting many words down. This second part, it switches from first-person to third-person, which is throwing off my rhythm pretty hard. It feels like I’m starting over. This depresses me.

5:11 PM - 11,161. Just wrote the word ‘beautiful’ a second before it was used as a lyric in the song that’s playing. Weird. Also, this tense-shift is driving me crazy. It feels so wrong, third-person past, after so much first-person present.

5:55 PM - 11,622. Spinal Tap reference: check.

6:12 PM - 12,007. Well past tomorrow’s quota and I’m finally getting the hang of this new tense. Gorillaz at full volume (more importantly, full bass) in the empty, wooden-floored house is amazing. Such resonance.

6:23 PM - 12,135. Down the hallway, again!

6:24 PM - 12,140. Loboratory? Perhaps where lobotomies are performed? Or would that be a lobototorium? So many o’s...

6:38 PM - 12,386. Calvin and Hobbes reference: check.

6:40 PM - 12,429. Elvis reference: check.

6:45 PM - 12,515. Done for the evening, at the end of chapter eight.