I missed Tuesday Night's entry

So, we'll go back in time:

I broke 30K tonight. 30136.

Not bad considering that my computer crashed tonight when I was about an hour into my nightly writing, and I lost around 1500 words. I had set Open Office to AutoSave, but after the crash, Open Office assured me that it didn't have any document called "today" to recover, and I spent a good half hour looking for ways to try to coax those missing words from my machine.

And it won.

I remembered the plot points I had written: Helen had a panic attack and tries to convince our main group to go back for the missing people, but the leader of the group shoots her down, pretty brutally. A lot of character interaction, and what I feel is a good look at what goes on inside the head of someone having a panic attack.

Then, a quiet character steps forward to take the blame for their situation and gives her backstory, explaining WHY these people would leave a safe environment to go into danger.

Why?

Because they didn't know how bad things were. Now, they are on the run, trying to get back home. That's the overall thrust of this novel (and the next few if I continue it). There is a term in writing called "The McGuffin". That's the thing that starts the plot, even though it's not the POINT of the plot. In Casablanca, the McGuffin is the letters of transit, but the plot is the relationship between Rick and Ilsa.

Ray and Will, our two missing characters, are going to be out of the story for a while, to build suspense. The last we saw them, they were trying to get away from The Others, had been found and were under gunfire. All our other characters know is that they heard a few bursts of gunfire while they were getting away, and have no idea what it means.

Things I still need to do:

-Get a couple of good ideas of stories to tell about what happened while civilization was falling, or hidden backstory to one of the main characters as between chapter interludes
-Decide if the characters even GET to the Army base in this book, or if that's for the next one.
-Sort out what happened to Ray and Will. Things don't look good for them

As much as losing those words upset me, I think this version of the this passage is stronger, probably because I'd worked it through in my head, and tonight's 3000 words count as a second draft.

Still, I have 9 days for 20,000 words. Not insurmountable, especially with a holiday and two weekend days before the 30th. Last year, I plowed through 10,000 words on one quiet Sunday at the coffee house when an Ex Girl Friend showed up with her new boyfriend. It was a case where I channeled all of my negative emotion into the writing rather than deal with it. Hopefully, this year, I can get the same word count without the emotional upset.

Then again, every character is still alive. I don't know as any of the zombies novels has had THAT happen.

I see that this thread is getting a lot of views, so I thank you for your attention, time and interest. I hope that next year, we can get some of you readers to become WRITERS.