NaNoWriMo: Day 4

Friday! The weekend is here!

And because of certain assholes I'm related to I get to fight a fresh new battle of doubts.

I was going okay today, I got down 786 words in about 40 minutes and even found the voice for my evil character - I swear, he sounds exactly like my old boss!

When my dad comes in.

Now my mum knows what I'm doing and what my dreams are, sure she never reads my stuff but she does the mum thing that involves telling me that as long as I work hard and work smart that I can do this. She was proud of my 3,000 odd words on Wednesday and it was her push that actually got them written.

When I went downstairs to tell her about the first 1,700 words I asked her to guess how much I'd written and she said 3,000...and I said no only 1,700...I went back down an hour later to update her that I had in fact reached 3,500 and she said "See, I knew you could do it"

It' her comments like that that spur me on so much more strongly than her reading my stuff ever could.

Last night I went downstairs to grab something and updated her with my 600 words so far that night, she grinned at me when  Itold her I did it in 30 minutes. My dad happened to be there at the time to but didn't say anything.

He comes up later to ask what I was doing by which time I had reached my 786.

The conversation went something like this:
"So what is it that you're actually doing?"
"I'm writing..."
"Yeah, but isn't there something about a contest?"
"No, it's more like a writing prompt, there is a contest but I'm not entering because my work doesn't follow the rules, I'm just using it to help me write."
"So it's not for a contest."
"No."
"So then, why are you bothering?"
"Because I want to write a book..."
"Oh, but you're not entering it in a contest."
"No."
"Oh good, because anything you wrote that quickly wouldn't be that good, so don't enter it into a contest after rushing it."
"Excuse me?"
"Well you don't want to sacrifice your integrity with something that's not that good."

The rest of the conversation consisted of me screaming at him to get out and him trying half-heartedly to shut me up.

Of course I'm not going to freaking submit what I'm writing anywhere until I've revised it...but did he have to come in and say that?

I know this to you guys probably sounds like a complete whinge fest because I didn't like some criticism about my work...I don't mind criticism...but if you're going to judge...at least read the fricken book first.

He went on about how he actually likes what I write - still throwing in the occasional, so don't submit this because it won't be that good - even though he's read all of about three short stories and some childhood poems...oh and one earlier this year...

Yep, he has a real grasp on what I should and shouldn't be writing...

CURRENT PROJECT: Practically Dead
DAYS WORKED ON: 5
WORD COUNT: 5,777