NaNoWriMo - End of Day 10

Really feeling the Week Two blues this year. Usually Week Two doesn't affect me much, and I'm surprised how much I'm struggling given how much I already know about where the story is going to end up.

That's turning out to be exactly the problem, actually. Because I already know who the villain is, I'm making it far too easy and far too obvious who it is. I recently introduced the main villain, and while he is good for word count (prosperity preachers repeating the word 'Lord' every five seconds when they pray kind of adds up after a bit), I think it's too obvious what his role is in the whole thing.

I also think I made my detective make the link between the kidnapping case and the case of her brother's murder too soon. Again, too obvious too quickly.

Right now I'm in the middle of my near-traditional Week Two dream sequence and it's saving my pace right now. I managed to build up a massive lead in the first week, and I'm trying very hard to at least make quota right now so I don't fall behind.

UPDATE: hit 25k -- the official halfway point of the contest. The dream sequence was literally seven pages long. The official goal for Day 10 is 16,670 so I'm still nearly 10k ahead of schedule.

Today was actually a really good writing day. I managed some 400ish words over breakfast and another 400-500 over my 20-minute lunch break. Altogether I had 1100 words on my Alphasmart Neo by the time I got home and joined the new stuff to the main document. That's pretty impressive considering I'm eating with one hand and typing with the other and am not able to fully relax into the story because I have to be punctual about going back on the floor.

I've been struggling to hold off with plot points because I'm terrified I'll pull a Triple Threat (my 2018 novel) and blow my whole plot in ten thousand words and have nothing left over. Going from 0 to 25k in the span of ten days hasn't helped either -- I'm going at such velocity that I can't comprehend that I'm at the halfway point yet and if I don't get the dominoes falling now, the plot won't be over by the time I hit 50k.

I'm not quite sure what happens next. We have the (anti) hero's backstory and motivation now, but I need a clue that cracks the case wide open for the cops. I also need the lead detective to struggle more, both with her brother's death and with the moral issues of investigating a case that she thinks is related to her brother's case without telling her superiors what she suspects. It's a tricky balance, and I'm not very good at tricky balances.

Either way, here's to the next 25k.