As of an hour and forty-two minutes ago, it's technically Day 5, but I'm still up and I'm sure you're dying to know the latest in my insane trek towards literary Nirvana.

As you may remember, yesterday I threw down the gauntlet and challenged Sharon T. Rose to NaNo War. I went into it as an underdog, and by the time Sharon went offline last night, I was some 3,000 words behind.

Thanks to my wonderful friend Insomnia, I made up a lot of that and started this morning's writing at 7,765 words, just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Sharon's 9,420. Of course, Sharon was busy working on her own manuscript, but I was catching up. Around 10,000 words, the gap really started shrinking and in fact, I passed Sharon for a while.

The Race
What followed was something akin to two racehorses neck-and-neck with each other. Sharon would jump a few hundred words ahead. Then I'd throw some Literary Rock Star SuperWriter Juice™ on the keyboard and pull ahead again. We went back and forth like that again and again, but alas, life often interferes. By the end of the day, I'd slowed down some, and right now, Sharon has a lead of roughly 1,300 words.

What does that mean for total wordcounts? Right now, I'm sitting at 12,394. Sharon has 13,757. Of course, a little birdie just told me that Sharon has gone to bed, and I'm still awake. Will I push through and try to sneak ahead while my opponent is sleeping? Would I be so heinous? You bet your britches, but I do have some other projects to work on, so we'll see what I get done before I sleep tonight.

The Trash Talk
Twitter has become something of a battleground, with Sharon (sharontherose) and I (gabrielgadfly) flinging good-natured insults at each other across the lines. For example:

sharontherose: @gabrielgadfly You should look @proseofsharon. You are so getting eaten.

gabrielgadfly: @sharontherose Eaten, am I? My wordcount of 9,856 says otherwise. And I'm just warming up.

sharontherose: @gabrielgadfly Well, I haven't started yet today. Just you wait. Just you wait. :P

gabrielgadfly: @sharontherose Wait? Honey, I'm not waiting. I've got better things to do, like stomp your wordcount into the ground. :P

And later...

sharontherose: It's so easy to blow past @gabrielgadfly, it's not worth laughing about ...

gabrielgadfly: @sharontherose Really? I think if you'll look again, you'll see I'm ahead of you.

sharontherose: @gabrielgadfly Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see how the night do go.

And even later...

sharontherose: @gabrielgadfly Ho hum. Your efforts are slightly amusing.

gabrielgadfly: @sharontherose And yet you're still behind. :P Maybe you should spend less time tweeting and more time writing.

sharontherose: @gabrielgadfly I can afford to tweet and write, since it doesn't take me 3 hours to write 1k words like some people.

gabrielgadfly: @sharontherose Bah. 3 hours? I've been busy. Beating you is so easy it's at the bottom of my to-do list, and I'm still winning. :P

sharontherose: @gabrielgadfly Beating you isn't even on my to-do list. Letting you think you're winning is too much fun!

gabrielgadfly: @sharontherose Ha. Letting me think I'm winning, are you?

sharontherose: Since this #nanowrimo challenge offered by @gabrielgadfly is so leisurely, I think I'll go get some tea.

What's Next?
Day 5 of NaNo is just beginning, and 50,000 words is still a good way off, so I expect there will be a good deal more mudslinging between Sharon and I. If you want to keep up with the play-by-play, be sure to follow us both on Twitter.

In all seriousness, I want to go ahead and offer a huge congratulations to Sharon and to all the other people on my Writing Buddies list. Whether you've written 20,000 words or 200, you're still writing, and that's what NaNo is all about: producing creative works and functioning with the literary community. Keep it up!