NaNoWriMo Day 26

Okay, my stats:

Word count goal for today: 43,333 words
Total word count at the end of today: 45,535 words
Words ahead: 2,202

That's. Amazing. No seriously -- I'm not sure if I've ever been that ahead in NaNoWriMo. I always seem to be right on track or a little behind.

But let me admit to you why I'm ahead and you might not be so impressed...

All of the words in that word count are, indeed, my original words. Well, I've quoted Mom's journal occasionally, but most of it is indeed mine. However, some of those words I've written in the past. Like, before this November. *gasp* I know. I'm typing up some journal entries or picking excerpts from my blogs to include in my novel. I've done this particularly the past two days because I was a heavy journalist (journaler?) and blogger during the years I am writing about.

But I have two good reasons for using past words in my auto-bio:

1. Those source documents, so to speak, are the best way to tell my story. Rather than re-telling about my trip to Mt. Rushmore, wouldn't I rather record some of the thoughts I wrote down in my journal four years ago from the day I was actually there? The second choice sounds better to me. In fact, that's exactly what I did. And by re-reading and typing up those journal entries, I was reminded of the actual timeline of that trip. I would have had it all jumbled up if I'd tried to write that trip from memory. After typing up the journal entries, I expanded my thoughts and details with some original words.

2. I want to have a unified record of my journal/blog entries. (I consider my blogs to be public journals.) Let's pretend my house burns down, the internet completely crashes, or I'm an old woman who can't remember a thing about her life. Wouldn't you want your life story all in one, handy-dandy book that you could just grab and go or read through on a whim. If I lost my pictures or journals or if my blogs suddenly disappeared from the internet, I want at least one hard copy of all the highlights.

So, I am using words I've written before. But big deal. I am adding thousands and thousands of more words, original words from this month, to the stockpile. In just a little over three days, I'll have a masterpiece that I'll call my first 18 years.