Just wait until they're 16!

Conversation that took place today:

B-man: I hugged N-man at circle time [at preschool].

Me: Aw, that was nice! N-man, did you hug B-man back?

N-man: No!

Me: B-man, were you hugging to be nice, or to drive N-man crazy? [B-man has a tendency to use tons of unwanted hugs and kisses to annoy N-man, so it's not like that would be without precedent.]

B-man, confused: N-man doesn't know how to drive.

Oh, you crazy idioms!

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Current NaNo word count: 34,641. I've already done a good chunk of writing today while TK did errands with the boys. Isn't he the best??

Current NaNo attitude: Thinking my novel is horrible, and noticing I've made some huge mistakes, such as failing to describe what any of my main characters look like, having one character have a completely unexplained personality switch, and leaving an important secondary character out of the story for vast swaths of time (hmmm, to be written out? She may be on the chopping board!)

I realize that every novelist goes through this, and that it's completely normal for a first draft to have weaknesses, and being tuned in to these weaknesses already (which for the most part should be easy to fix with a little editing and rewriting) is a pretty good sign. But then when I'm feeling more pessimistic, I realize that every novelist goes through this thinking their novel is crap...not just successful novelists. Most novelists are right. Their novel is crap.

But as I've said before, I'd rather have a finished piece of crap at the end of November than an unfinished "am I SURE it would have been crap if I'd just made the effort" half-novel.