The Big DumpTruck

Wow, it feels weird to not have the Nano deadline staring me in the face anymore. I really love doing it – there is no way I would write that much without the pushing and prodding of trying to “win” the attempt. Now I’m kind of sad that I didn’t finish last year because it puts a hole in my record.

I have decided that I have to keep going, while the muse is still in the room. Not with the same intensity, but I am going to allow myself the long rambling “just write anything” moments to keep momentum up. I hit a point on Sunday where I really liked what I was writing. There was an actual plot. I want to expand on that before I let it fall to the wayside like the other 2 finished attempts and the half attempt from last year. I have a lot of paper covered with crappy writing, that’s for sure!

I don’t have a copy of the finished product with me, but I can tell you that the thing I was writing about when I hit 50k was something about how you don’t want your hands to smell like pudding. I’m surprised Random House hasn’t already called…

Okay, 5000 or so words to go by midnight tomorrow. Piece of cake.

I say that, and I should also mention that a mouse kept us awake most of the night last night. I was ready to set off explosives just to destroy the thing.

If I get a trap (you know, the Tom and Jerry kind) and we catch it, I’m going to feel obligated to say “Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.” I know, I know, but at least I warned you.

As of this very second (if you don’t count that I’m not writing, I’m updating the Dump) I have 42581 words. I have until midnight Tuesday to hit 5000. My goal for tonight, which I may or may not make, given that I’m getting a little tired and I have work tomorrow, is 44000, which would give me only 3000 per day for the next two days. Entirely do-able.

The quality of my writing has flown into the toilet in an effort to get the word count up. It’s an ugly scene in my Word file. Here’s a sample for you, in which I take advantage of the time-honored tradition of repeating words as often as possible.

“What the hell kind of friends do I have that they won’t let me eat pie in peace? For goodness’ sake, it’s just pie. What is wrong with pie? If they won’t let me have pie, I’m just going to have to dump them for some other friends. Some friends who can appreciate that the body needs pie, just like it needs sunshine, root beer and Durkee’s fried onion rings. ”

I think I’ve used that Title Before. It’s going to have to be okay, because I’m not going to change it. I’m taking the easy way out today, as I already mentioned in the title.

Yesterday was a great day. Sorry I didn’t get around to telling you about it. Not only did we squeeze in a trip to the Higgins Armory Museum (oh my God, have you been there? Unbelievable!), but we also got the train I wanted for Christmas (scaled to go around my Dept 56 Village pieces that I’ve been collecting for 10 years or so now) and, get this, Mr. Dump put up the outside Christmas lights. I have to tell you, that’s the shocking one for the day. This is a man who isn’t into Christmas a half of what I am, and putting up the lights has definitely been my job over the years. But he not only did it, he wanted to. Now I am sad to announce that I let him pick out the color because I had done it like the past 6 years or so, and this year we’re stuck with white. It looks nice, but I like to put solid red or solid blue. Or mixed. We were usually the house that broke up the white monotony.

But I get to pick the colors for the tree in the house, so that’s okay. And no way in heck we’re putting all white lights on the tree in the house. Nope. Nosiree.