Reflections from the halfway marker

Today is the 15th. We are halfway through NaNoWriMo. I can hardly believe it.

Seppo and I have both felt like things have gone awry from earlier, more frenatic and insanely productive times. Around this time in the project, as I hear, plots gang aft agley (while some just start pulling together in perfect ways) but I'm sort of at a loss as to why things have happened the way they have. We talked a lot in the car on the way home, and hit upon these pertinent points:

• We both feel the story better when we are exploring characters in unforeseen and unpredictable situations.
• When we write about situations that we can't relate to, it's no surprise that those parts of our books lag and do not flow like the other parts.
• When we have preconceived notions about the plot or characters, things seem to happen more awkwardly.

Given this set of points, it's clear that we should write about situations we can relate to, that we don't expect the characters to find themselves in. That's sort of difficult, but having this new challenge in front of me gives me some motivation to push on. I want my character to tell me what they want to do once again.

How is it going for the rest of you? What are you learning from the process about yourself, how you write, and what you are good at? Any tips for the rest of us?