Lather, Rinse, Repeat ...

So, 2600 words later, I believe I've detected a pattern...

Two observations:

1. Yes I can trust my characters to come up with stuff to talk about if only I would just start the scene and let them do the rest.

2. The stumbling block comes in when it's my turn to come up with something to happen. I'm slow during those parts. Once it's the characters' turn to react to whatever I just made happen, I've got nothing to worry about.

Mainly, as long as I'm clear on what they know and don't know, and all the worldbuilding is actually in place, I can roll along at high speed. Worldbuilding is what slows me down. Namely, a character needs to know some kind of minor detail in order to make a tangential passing remark. But before they can do that, I need to create a whole new category of setting stuff and then figure out what subset of that do they know about. Someday I'll be rock-solid familiar enough with my own setting, with everything built, that I can write as fast as Robert does when he's playing in his favorite gigantic setting. But I'm not there yet.

Some other observations that I've been noticing overall:

1. Sunkist has way more caffeine in it than Mello Yello, despite expectations to the contrary when comparing it to Mt. Dew. Mr. Pibb has way more than Sunkist.

2. I've figured out what my successful stable routine is. Two writing sessions of 8 hours each. One session between the time I wake up in the afternoon, and midnight. Second session from midnight to dawn. (Sleep from dawn to afternoon.) Goal of 2k words per session. 2 hour break between sessions.

Looking at it that way, each session goal looks really modest. If I'd figured that out a lot earlier, I would be a lot closer to 100k than I am now. Next year it'll come into play, though...

3. I do not have WolfDreamer or Jeanene on my nanowrimo friends lists, and I've not managed to guess what your names are. Wanna fess up? ;)

Oh and. It turns out that instead of the evil shadowlord ever attacking the fort, my crew at the fort have decided to relocate to the village instead. The plot twists continue...