Progress Report: Day 2

I am happy to report that things got off to a great start, and then...

I spent Halloween at Zappagirl's, with the plan of starting at midnight and stopping when I passed out on the keyboard. We ate pizza, we drank too much coffee, we started watching Sweeney Todd in Concert but got distracted. (I was having a hard time concentrating on it anyway, not to mention the fact that I shouted "Doogie!" at the screen every time Neil Patrick Harris had a scene.)

Around 11:30 or so, Zappagirl retired for the evening, and I started to prepare to start. I organized my notes for the hundredth time, pulled out CDs to listen to while I typed, and snuck down to the kitchen for a last minute smoke. I spent the next ten minutes staring at my reflection in the kitchen window repeating the words "You can do this. You can do this." over and over, setting the timer on the coffee machine, and trying to decide how I would wear my hair for the jacket copy photo.

Deluded? Me? You betcha.

Once the clock hit midnight, I started typing at a frenzied pace, stopping briefly to change CDs. I quit at 3 am, and checked the word count. 2245. Whoo hoo!

I rule. I am unstoppable. I am invincible. I may even be bulletproof at this point, but I don't feel like testing that theory.

Even though I was still brimming over with ideas at this point, I decided it would be a good idea to stop and get a few hours of sleep. Unfortunately, my brain had other ideas. Starting this story seemed to have opened a new channel in my brain, and I lay there awake letting my head run loose. And when I did finally get to sleep, I ended up having bizarre dreams that woke me up every few hours.

Inspired by my first night's success, I went into work in a great mood. That lasted about 15 minutes. I got completely slammed, policy changes crept up that affected the way my work load, and I just ended up having a crappy day. When I finally left the office at 8 pm, all I wanted to do was drink a few beers and go to bed. (The only good things that happened yesterday: getting to see absolutely adorable Halloween pictures of my nieces, and getting carded at the convenience store when I stopped to buy the adult beverages. Honestly, I don't look my age, but I also don't look underage. Guess the clerk didn't notice the numerous grey hairs from where my dye job is growing out. But I'll take compliments where I can get them.)

I decided to compromise and allow myself a drink to unwind before I started working on installment #2. My body, however, had other plans and I woke up on the couch at 4 am with not a thing written.

Crap.

So here it is, day 2 and I'm already behind schedule. Part of me is very discouraged by this, but I'm determined to not get too worked up about this. I have all weekend to write, except for the breaks when I'm going to see Monsters Inc. with JohnnyB on Saturday and Rent with my mom on Sunday afternoon.

So I'm headed off to Zappagirl's tonight to write my brains out tonight, while she indulges in kamikaze knitting. Yeah, we're really exciting people.

If anyone is interested, Musashi is posting his installments on his website as he progresses. The first part is an absolute hoot, and I feel very envious because all I've written so far is boring exposition. Gaaah. (And Musashi and I seem to have a weird synchronicity going. We've both mentioned Kierkegaard in the first 1500 words. Odd.)

I've set a goal of 10,000 words by Monday. Hopefully I'll make it. I need to get ahead of schedule, or I'm not allowed to watch any TV next week. Who decided to schedule this thing during November sweeps?