770 words (26039 total)

First line: The Penguins played at the old arena, the post-WWII Memorial Arena every town in Canada seems to have.

720 words (25269 total)

First line: You know how sometimes you think you’ve crossed some metaphorical threshold and then later you find out that’s not the case at all?

423 words (24549 total)

First line: Tom had caught up with his family by the time we started watching.

522 words (24126 total)

First line: “I found this on the floor of the car when I got home.”

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?”