Day 17. Twenty-seven thousand words to go

The National Novel Writing website is quite useful. It told me, for instance, that as of today the seventeenth I had 27,000 words to go. and should be writing at the rate of 1,943 words per day for the rest of November, Thanksgiving Day included (no football then). I had reported that to date I have written 22,801 words.

I am not sure whether to be comforted since my target was to write two thousand words a day, but it is killing me. I feel like the fifty year old parent I was after having taken my then preteens on a horseback ride up and down some national park trail. Would I make it to dinner? Is there enough tylenol or advil to make me feel whole again?

Several other fellow writers in a local community group are also in this month of insane endeavor and are slightly ahead. Perhaps they "shaved their points" in our discussion to allow me to feel better. On the other hand, a correspondent blithely reported that he had not only written thirty thousand words but also just released a CD of original yuletide songs.

Both those who encourage and those who humiliate (without malice aforethought) are to be cherished. So help me God.