531 words (23604 total)

First line: After I finished my sandwich, I tipped over on the couch, and flipped idly through the channels.

So I’m at ~23K words (even with the big long gap mid-Feb that was “Reading” Break). Which would be great, except according to my outline, I’m only through 3 “scenes.” Ha. This is about where I start to panic and think I’m never going to get anywhere, and set it aside, and well, you know the rest. So far I haven’t, and I keep reiterating to myself that the point of this exercise is not to write anything good, it’s just to finish this story. That in itself would be an accomplishment. Writing (almost) every day is an accomplishment. But it’s hard not to get frustrated. The story in my head is like a color photograph but what ends up on the page is like a photocopy made on a copier that’s out of toner.

543 words (23073 total)

First line: I stretched.

741 words (22530 total)

First line: We didn’t talk.

683 words (21789 total)

First line: He held out the blue parka.

1033 words (21106 total)

First line: “Why’d you ask me that?”

614 words (20073 total)

First line: I was seriously underperforming in art that afternoon.

515 words (19459 total)

First line: So I was right about the hockey thing.

567 words (18944 total)

First line: It was the boy from the river.