25,000 Words And Counting

On Sunday I broke through the halfway mark of the word count challenge component of NaNoWriMo. I'm now just over 27k. Towards the end of last week I reached the end of Part One (subtitled "May you live in interesting times"), and currently have five chapters to do before the end of Part Two.

I think, because this is supposed to be in the mystery genre, that I now know whodunnit, although the reason for it keeps changing. Tonight I was a little bit stuck for something to write; I knew where I wanted the chapter to end, and I knew something that had to happen - but there was a big patch of nothing in between. And then all of a sudden it just came out: "Did you see the O'Neill file?"

When I wrote it, I had absolutely no idea what it meant (O'Neill is the surname of a friend of mine). Twenty minutes later I had finished the chapter and ended it on, I think, a much better note than I had originally planned. And O'Neill is an interesting idea that I can't quite decide on: red herring or key to the plot?

I'm classing the whole experience/experiment as a success so far - primarily because whenever I've hit a slight snag I haven't felt the need to bring in the zombies or do something else to completely upset the applecart...

More soon on word count and progress; I'm away in Edinburgh from Thursday to Sunday, and will hopefully handwrite at least two chapters in that time. Keep your fingers crossed!

EDIT: O'Neill is definitely a plot point. Decision came down from on high, too good not to use.