Day Two

9:28 AM - Set to work, this time on the bus. Carsickness in t-minutes five minutes and counting.

9:43 AM - 1,819. Writing on the bus sucks. Very bumpy.

10:54 AM - Got the whole story-arc thing mapped out in math class. I’m very confused, but I think I know what I’m doing now. Or, at the very least, I know where to go with it. Hardest decision so far: yes, time travel is absolutely necessary. Also, got the characters pretty figured out. Their roles in the plot, at least.

11:43 AM - 1,933. Really getting the ball rolling now, plot-wise, but for some reason one of the characters has started to speak like Gandalf. An interesting development...

12:25 PM - 2,445. Getting close to fulfilling today’s quota, but alas, I must detour down the road of scholarly responsibility. Just when it was getting good, too. Somehow this chapter’s turned towards the mystery/suspense vein. Oh well.

1:23 PM - 2,469. In class, trying to sneak words out between the professor’s powerpoint slides. Making the chapters way too short, substituting them for the *** I’m so accustomed to using with short stories. Need to learn how they work together; when the break in action is big enough to constitute a whole new chapter or just a small pause. Or maybe *** just indicates a scene change within the same time period? Kinda like all the “meanwhile, at stately Wayne Manor”s in the old Batman. Four chapters in five pages is a bit ridiculous, I think.

1:30 PM - 2,469, still. Realizing now that I’ve completely trapped myself in first-person narration. Need to have action away from protagonist, but can’t make it work within the narrative confines I’ve established. Balls!

1:47 PM - Yes, still at 2,460. But now I’ve solved the whole first-person prison thing. And I figured out how to do the critical POV shift from protagonist to protagonist’s clone. Much rejoicing.

3:44 PM - 2,467. Back at the empty Yellowhouse. Alone, mostly terrified to be alone in the house after seeing Paranormal Activity yesterday. Drown out the terror with volume and brownies.

4:13 PM - 2,784. Just wrote my favorite line, so far: “Doug had an eye for good hedge-work...”

4:30 PM - 3,076. Narrowing in on today’s quota, though I plan on overshooting, working my way far into tomorrow’s count.

4:36 PM - 3,196. Couldn’t resist Ferris Bueller reference: “This place is like a museum: very cold and you can’t touch anything.”

4:46 PM - 3,379 and rolling. Boosh! Reduced to air-drumming along to Baroness in celebration. Psych is high. Also, just described a bowling alley with a black floor instead of the usual hardwood. Now I want one.

5:02 PM - 3,614. Requisite Bill Murray reference: check.

5:46 PM - 3,886. Took an extended break to write out a brief overview of the next chapter. Have been writing with black Fisher space pen. I usually favor roller ball pens, but I’m growing rather fond of this, a ball point. Learning its intricacies, its secrets.

6:33 PM - 4,664. Again, very confused with the tense of the narration. Really I have no clue how to manipulate these things; I just go for whatever sounds right.

6:50 PM - 5,058. Got tomorrow covered, but if I keep going maybe I can finish this thing early. Or at least keep my mind off of every shifting creak of the floorboards or hiss of the radiators, which aren’t creaking floorboards or hissing radiators, they’re the footsteps of some unseen demon, the hiss of its breath hot on my neck...

7:26 PM - 5,727. Chapter five in the bank, ready to get out of this cold house and grab some dinner. Made significant progress today; nearly at my quota for day four already. Think I’m finally getting the hang of writing long fiction, finding the right length to extend scenes without having them drag on for pages and pages. Ridiculously loud music helps. Would like to keep going but I’m struggling to spell words now, having to stop mid-word and think for a second. Fingers are moving slow, too.

11:47 PM - 5,729. These grapes I’m eating, they must have some kind of invisible mold on them, for they are disgusting. Tomorrow I will search out the best snackfood available, and make a cache. A snack cache.