There are bird feathers all over my floor.  I was madly typing away, grateful that the puppy was leaving me alone.  I heard her breathing fast and hopping around, back by the couch.  I figured she was tormenting the older one.  Then I turn around and see she has something in her mouth and is playing by herself.  Well, without the other dog.  She is playing with a dead bird.  And all that hopping was in order to fling the bird up in the air so as to maximize the number of feathers it lost when it fell to the ground.  I don’t even know if my vaccuum can handle something like this.  I just noticed what looked like a bird’s ankle with a foot attached, behind my chair.  And all I really care about is that I got my words done. 

3,015:  That’s what I’ve got so far.  It’s rolling along easily because this part of the plot I’ve had in my head since last summer.  I looked at my favorite book and paid attention to how you are supposed to write dialogue and how to transition between characters.  I switched to writing in third person but I’m still hanging on to the hope I can keep one character in first person.  She’s the one I get the most and it just sounds stronger when I leave it like that.  But then the transition is awkward.  But like Anam said, “that’s what editors are for.”  Because I’m used to being the editor, it’s hard to leave those lines that I know are wrong, but  it’s not worth losing momentum over.  I feel like God is writing this with me, just easing me from one scene to the next.  I don’t even have to sit and wonder how to get there.  This feels just like reading a good book, to me.  I can’t stop until I get my fill, and then I’m too full to write another page.  So I’m not worrying so much about the exact word count at the end of the day. 

I’m off to the hospital, ’cause it’s Tuesday.

I did it!  I did the first day’s work and it went great.  It feels so good to start something that I’ve wanted to do, meant to do, and just didn’t have to guts to start.  And unlike blogging, I don’t worry about things like tense (I tend to flip in and out of past and present) because I read that it’s better to have “a shitty first draft,” and sort through all the problems later.  The important thing is to let it all flow, in the beginning.  So this is a lot of fun, so far.  I haven’t bathed, my house is a mess and I just shoved the puppy downstairs when she wouldn’t get off the couch for tenth time, because I HAVE TO TYPE! 

I actually took each dog for a separate walk, as I have not yet acquired the skill of multi-dog walking.  The older dog is finally so arthritic that she isn’t bounding ahead quite so much. Now that she is nearing the end of her life I can leash train her.  Before I always walked in the woods where I didn’t need a leash.  Ultimately, I hope to be one of those  women I see with two dogs perfectly in tow.  Wanting to sit here, for the morning, while the puppy sleeps, will require an early-morning walk.  So, already, Nanowrimo is bringing structure to my life.