1,717 Down, 48,283 To Go

I am feeling just downright self-satisfied at the moment. Tim took the baby to the zoo at about eleven this morning, so I had the house to myself for a change. I hopped in the shower and put on some clothes that made me feel confident. I even wore shoes with a little heel. Flats make me feel insecure. I know what you're saying. "The whole idea of being a writer is being able to work in your ratty pjs and slippers." But that's every day for me, since I stay home with my little boy. I needed something a little extra special to make me feel like more than the wrong end of a milk tap. I heated up a Totino's Three-Meat Pizza in the oven and re-heated coffee from this morning. I put the lock down on mental images of mushy carrots stuck to the kitchen floor, piles of smelly laundry lying all over the house, and other sirens that tend to beckon me away from writing. Peace and quiet reigned for a few hours. I began to type at 11:23 a.m. Well, I had my fingers on the keyboard by 11:23, anyway. My chest constricted. My armpits tingled. Blood rushed into my cheeks. My hair frizzled. And then I began to type. Every few minutes, I'd check the word count, and with each push towards 1600-and-something I felt more encouraged by the ground I'd covered. Before I knew it, it was 1:10 p.m and I was at 1,717 words - way past what was required by the guidlines of this project. OK. Not way past, but above and beyond the call of duty. I established the main character - her name, a physical description, and several personality traits. I set the tone - humorous, I hope. I presented a problem. Essentially, I did manage to set the stage for the rest of the novel. One of my fears had been that I would move too far to fast. But I don't think that I have. I'm really pleased with what I've written so far. And I'm already panicking about tomorrow.

My favorite line so far:

I mean, if I took a photo of myself and put it on the Internet and an adolescent boy happened to stumble onto it, I don’t think that he’d roll the computer just to ensure that the image was absolutely vanquished from the RAM.