Cheater, Cheater

Sorry I can’t tell you where my secret lair is. I can tell you it’s not full of high-tech gadgets, cannisters of brightly colored knockout gas (so useful!), not even a really cool car. It’s just me, my cat, and my trusty HP laptop. Occasionally my manservant (husband) will bring me a cup of excellent coffee, but he absolutely refuses to wear the apron and black-rimmed glasses I’ve provided for him, nor will he feather-dust my bust of Shakespeare. Good help is so difficult to find. Sigh.
So what am I writing? By now most of you probably know about National Novel Writing Month, which is always in November. (If not, check out www.nanowrimo.org). Fifty thousand words in a month is doable–I’ve done it–but it’s a stretch for me. Six to eight hundred words a day is more comfortable. This year I got the brilliant idea to cheat! My devious brain told me that if I started on October 1 and wrote 800 words a day, I could complete my work-in-progress by November 30. So far, I’m on track, and it feels great.
I’m also experimenting with working on two projects at once. That contemporary romance novel I wrote for NaNo two Novembers ago? Well, it needs quite a bit of help. A lot is salvageable though, and once I broke down and asked for plotting help from my friends, I figured out just how to fix it. So I’m alternating between the two WIPs–I can read four or five novels simultaneously and keep the stories straight. Theoretically, I should be able to do the same with writing. I’ll report back on the results in a couple of months.
So, are you a cheater? A Loner, Dottie? A Rebel? Or do you follow the rules?