lies and damned lies

Here's a trick I've learned this year: Use statistical feedback to motivate yourself. I set up a spreadsheet that shows the daily quota assuming you use the entire 30 days, then I enter my cumulative word count, which is constantly updated by the application I use, and my spreadsheet gives the daily count, an average daily count, and the number of days expected until I finish, along with an updated quota assuming I use all 30 days.

Although I feel fine about my main character, I don't think I've done a good job of creating my other characters. I'm going to try to do a little character study within the novel to help this out. My other problem is that I've wanted to do a mostly realistic novel. I don't mind having some outrageous parts, but within the realm of possibility. What I don't want is to make this science fiction or fantasy. What would be acceptable would be magical realism, however I'm not that well-read in that genre, although I've loved what I have read. I don't know how I'll handle that situation.