The Half Time Plan

I don’t watch football. I’ve seen one full game once and a few Super Bowl kick offs, and that is it. I know very little about the sport and most of what I do know comes from sports movies like Remember the Titans or Facing the Giants.

But what I have learned is that half time is key. If you’ve ever seen one of these underdog to victor sports movies (my favourite as a kid was the first Mighty Ducks not football but fun) the “loser” team makes it to the big championship and does horrible in the first half. At half time, while the school band does their thing, the coach is in the locker room giving a very inspiring speech and everything changes (plus someone is hurt and the team is "doing it for him").

Sometimes there is a brilliant new play that relies on the teams unique qualities. The second half is nail biting, edge of your seat action, waiting to see how the team will win (Spoiler: Coach Carter is the only exception I’ve seen to this model).


Today is the NaNoWriMo half time. The band is on the field playing classic video game themes and I’m in the locker room feeling defeated.

The word count goals are killing me. I should be at 25,000 and I'm not. I’m down 14,000 words. But I will not be overcome. I will fight back. NaNo Victory is still a possibility. "I've worked to hard to give up now!" It might mean hours spent at coffee shops, new crazy plot twists, having my main character break out in to song causing me to include pages of lyrics, and buckets of coffee and other caffeine enriched drinks. I don’t even like coffee –but I’ll take one for the team.

If you have any encouraging advice on how write 50,000 words before 11:59pm November 30 are possible please leave a comment. This is where I’m at right now:
Word Count: 11,892

Comments

Jecca said…
you can totally do this liz! i effectively send any and all motivation i have to write 50k by Nov 30th to you! it's just not happening for me this year...i don't have the heart for it.
Unknown said…
it has been a long first half. things have been tough, things have not gone your way. but now this is the second half and this half is yours! you have words bubbling over, and characters who are waiting to have life breathed into them. the plot is thickening and there is only one way to find out how it ends. only you will be able to give them that ending. so Go fight win!

there that is my pep talk for you.
Elizabeth said…
Thank you both. I wake today (Monday) ready to write. Many words and characters will come to life this day! (Helps that I have a write in tonight).

Jess -sorry to hear to the struggle. There is next year.

Glo -How goes the writing?
Unknown said…
right now because i am still in school hard, because i have two term papers to work on before the end of the month, (one due on Thursday and i haven't gotten past the research mode)
and i had an evil test last week So this week my goal is simply to write about 100 words a night. just to keep the thing going and then attack it hard during thanksgiving break.
Robin said…
I'm going to play the tough coach role and say "Suck it up, Princess! Now get yer arse back on the field, it's time to fight!"