I was pretty sure for most of the evening that I would have to stop short of 1,667 words today. I was tired and in a foul mood, and I didn’t feel like writing. I felt bad about that, but not too bad, because I would still have been ahead of pace overall.

But things picked up as the evening wore on. I was able to channel some of my negative emotions into one of my characters, and it turned out to serve the story quite well. That got me back on track, and I got 95 words past the target before stopping for the night.

Adam Savage appears to be in some peril at the hand of his co-worker Jamie. I suspect it will all turn out OK, however.

Another great segment was “Button, Button,” based on a story by another legendary writer, Richard Matheson. Matheson did more than anyone else except Rod Serling himself to shape the Twilight Zone in its original run, writing many of its best-loved episodes. “Button, Button” starred Mare Winningham and Brad Davis. It was relatively short, it was a great story, and it had a perfect “Twilight Zone” ending.

So, naturally, Hollywood has taken it, pumped in filler and an unnecessary continuation to the story, and created “The Box.” I haven’t seen it, and don’t plan on doing so, but this review confirms all my worst fears.

For those of you who’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo, let me remind you that what I’m writing may not be any good. A 50,000-word novella speed-written in 30 days is going to tend not to be good. That’s sort of the point. You have to just forge on ahead and not worry about how good it is. The discipline of writing every day has to take precedence over the need to second-guess yourself. December is for rewriting or second-guessing or what have you. There’s also National Novel Editing Month in March, although I’ve never participated in that one.

The fun thing, though, is that turning off your internal editor results in the occasional moment of creative revelation. And some people find that the ragged result of NaNoWriMo is a diamond in the rough, ready to be edited and polished.

My 2007 NaNoWriMo novel, “Soapstone,” happened sort of that way, and as you know I ended up self-publishing it. That’s been a fun experience, and I’ve been gratified at the response from friends, family and co-workers. It would probably take more polishing before it would be marketable to a traditional publisher, and even then it may not be marketable.

I am having fun with this year’s NaNoWriMo novel. Will it turn out to be something I can edit and polish and adapt, or will it fade into a fond memory once the exercise has ended? I’ll worry about that some time in December. For now, my only goal is getting to 50K.

If you have a copy of this morning’s Tennessean handy, look at the “Scoreboard” page.

Jacob plays for Perry County High School, and like most players at 1-A schools he plays both offense and defense.

Number one in tackles, as he has been pretty much all season? Jacob Tucker, with 119.

Number three in passing, with 138 completions for 2,207 yards? Why, that would be Jacob Tucker. He’s the starting quarterback, and has been since last year, when he was a freshman.

He also makes the list for rushing, further down, with 143 carries for 726 yards.

There’s another Jacob Tucker who appears in the rankings, from the Middle Tennessee Heat, a team in Mt. Juliet. If you weren’t paying attention, you might think that Jacob Tucker was highly ranked in both passing and receiving (which would be quite a feat!).