NaNoWriMo, Day 27: The End of a Month, the End of a Character

I've taken to skipping around now, writing a little bit in each of the chapters heretofore untouched. There is this sense of scattered desperation as I dab a few words here, slop on a few more there. (What I should be doing is nipping and tucking, but that's what the second draft is for. I have to keep telling myself this.)

I had read in Chris Baty's NaNoWriMo book about how some people deal with the end of the event: One guy, when he's near the end, starts painting entire chapters with single broad-stroke sentences, in an effort to make sure that his 49,999th and 50,000th words are "The" and "End." At the beginning of the night, I had some idea that I was going to try and do that same thing. But the fact is, it won't happen; I can't stop myself from starting to write a goodly amount of detail when I get into a section I like.

And tonight, I finished the evening with a section I definitely liked, though that will sound kind of dark: One of my characters is killed on Lake Michigan. It is an important turning point for many characters, and it compels my main character to take steps to change the course of his life. (Yeah, and I'm only getting to this event around the 48,000th word . . . so you have some idea how much more there is to still write!)

The character I killed is one that I dearly love, but who has gotten very little attention along the way as I've focused on my main character (which is to say, I've focused on me. I mean, let's be serious: what first-time novelist isn't writing his ol' narcissistic self as the main character?) This character will get much, much attention in the revision.

So it looks like I'll be hitting 50,000 tomorrow . . . and scooting right past it as I continue to try and wrap this puppy up. My problem, however, continues to be that I don't know what's going to happen for large swaths of the book that are not yet written! I suppose it'll be exciting to see how that all turns out.

Right?

Right?