Category: NaNoWriMo

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 26

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

This month has been exhausting, because not only have I been trying to get the NaNoWriMo project completed, which involves writing about 1,800 words a day, every day, I have been keeping up the A to Z blogging challenge with a new story every day bar Sunday.

You have no idea how much I looked forward to each of the Sundays.

Of course, a plan is needed if anyone is contemplating to do something similar.

It also requires you to be able to come up with a new idea every day for the story and try not to get caught up in a crossover.

And, try not to hit the wall.

This is exactly what happened yesterday, when I got halfway through the story, and the equivalent of deleting the file rather than saving it happened.

So few yards from the finishing line and kaput, I’m sitting there in front of a blank screen wondering where the next 2,5000 words for the story are coming from.

And questioning my sanity.

Tomorrow, hopefully, will be a new day!

…

More tomorrow.

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 25

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

Planning was the order of the day, and I needed to see where this story was going.

Firstly, a meeting with Maryanne’s handler will give some perspective on what might be in the mysterious diary.

After rescuing Jack’s mother, Jack has a host of questions; about his biological father, who he was, and what happened to him when he was sent to prison.

Jack makes further contact with his biological father, now that his mother is free, and considers a meeting, but he has to be careful where and when.

This meeting, if it happens, is to get some insight into who is after the diary, and for Jack to possibly mediate a resolution between all of the people who are after it.

It’s naïve of him to think he can tread a path between them and not get hurt in the process, but people do foolish things.

Remember that Rosalie is still out there with the diary and there might be/will be a concerted effort to find her. McCallister, the people who want the diary, Jack’s mother (now regretting dragging Jack into her problems), Maryanne, and Jacob are looking for her.

There might be a possibility that Rosalie might read the diary, and then tell Jack – an eventuality that might cause more trouble.

Jacob is out there, very close, watching Jack, thinking Jack will lead him to the diary. Jack is going to ask McCallister to tell him about Jacob, though I’m not sure whether I want him to consider the possibility of talking to him about the past.

Where is Jack’s mother’s twin (Her name is Chloe), and what is she doing? The last time Jack saw her, she was tied up in the empty apartment building. The conversation with her didn’t go so well.

…

Now, possible outcomes:

Jack’s mother isn’t Jack’s mother but Chloe masquerading as her,

Rosalie does in fact get caught, because she foolishly decided to find Jack and tell him what’s in the diary,

Jack’s meeting with McCallister is interrupted by both Maryanne and Jacob, bullets fly, and people get injured,

Jack’s mother is not the innocent she pretends to be,

Jack’s life is far from what he thought it was.

…

This story is going to be finished within the time limit, and the estimated 60,000 words.

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 30

Well, it’s done.

…

I changed the order and put the events leading to her death at the start as part one.

Part two is the story from Michael’s perspective, and part three is the detectives on a mission to find the killer.

I’m still not sure if I really do want to kill her, or whether I just make it so that she has to go away and live off the grid somewhere with the love of her life.

Does anyone still believe in happy endings?

Oddly this story has also been an emotional roller coaster though I can’t say why.  Something in it resonates.  Parts of the story brought me to a halt, and though I could feel the pain of Michael’s anguish. Or that helplessness of Howards, I rather think I knew what that was like.

I have been there. And it brought back memories that I thought I had buried.  I guess they do not go away, just lie dormant until another day.

But for the moment, it’s done, and it will go into the basket to be revisited in six months.  Perhaps then I will understand what it is that connects me to this story.

…

Words today, 1,778 for a total of 55,065

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 24

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

So, here’s a question.

If your mother and her twin sister are identical twins, how will Jack know that he has rescued the right woman?

We all know how some identical twins like to play tricks on their friends, by substituting each other. It’s a wicked game on the unsuspecting, but for a criminal, it’s a ploy that just might work.

But there’s that other issue we have between the son and the mother, quite a few years of lying and half-truths to get past, and a great deal of explanation.

Perhaps their reuniting is not going to go the way the mother or the son thinks.

Meanwhile, Jack is working on the idea of visiting his real father and trying to get some explanations out of him.

And, where is Maryanne?

Is it a bit late in the day to say that I’m not quite sure how this is going to end because one is not coming to me that will satisfy tying up the loose ends.

I suspect tomorrow will be the day when the last planning will be done. It may cost a day of words, but it will get the story done.

It’s the pointy end of the project and it has to come together.

Doesn’t it?

More tomorrow.

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 25

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

Planning was the order of the day, and I needed to see where this story was going.

Firstly, a meeting with Maryanne’s handler will give some perspective on what might be in the mysterious diary.

After rescuing Jack’s mother, Jack has a host of questions; about his biological father, who he was, and what happened to him when he was sent to prison.

Jack makes further contact with his biological father, now that his mother is free, and considers a meeting, but he has to be careful where and when.

This meeting, if it happens, is to get some insight into who is after the diary, and for Jack to possibly mediate a resolution between all of the people who are after it.

It’s naïve of him to think he can tread a path between them and not get hurt in the process, but people do foolish things.

Remember that Rosalie is still out there with the diary and there might be/will be a concerted effort to find her. McCallister, the people who want the diary, Jack’s mother (now regretting dragging Jack into her problems), Maryanne, and Jacob are looking for her.

There might be a possibility that Rosalie might read the diary, and then tell Jack – an eventuality that might cause more trouble.

Jacob is out there, very close, watching Jack, thinking Jack will lead him to the diary. Jack is going to ask McCallister to tell him about Jacob, though I’m not sure whether I want him to consider the possibility of talking to him about the past.

Where is Jack’s mother’s twin (Her name is Chloe), and what is she doing? The last time Jack saw her, she was tied up in the empty apartment building. The conversation with her didn’t go so well.

…

Now, possible outcomes:

Jack’s mother isn’t Jack’s mother but Chloe masquerading as her,

Rosalie does in fact get caught, because she foolishly decided to find Jack and tell him what’s in the diary,

Jack’s meeting with McCallister is interrupted by both Maryanne and Jacob, bullets fly, and people get injured,

Jack’s mother is not the innocent she pretends to be,

Jack’s life is far from what he thought it was.

…

This story is going to be finished within the time limit, and the estimated 60,000 words.

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 30

Well, it’s done.

…

I changed the order and put the events leading to her death at the start as part one.

Part two is the story from Michael’s perspective, and part three is the detectives on a mission to find the killer.

I’m still not sure if I really do want to kill her, or whether I just make it so that she has to go away and live off the grid somewhere with the love of her life.

Does anyone still believe in happy endings?

Oddly this story has also been an emotional roller coaster though I can’t say why.  Something in it resonates.  Parts of the story brought me to a halt, and though I could feel the pain of Michael’s anguish. Or that helplessness of Howards, I rather think I knew what that was like.

I have been there. And it brought back memories that I thought I had buried.  I guess they do not go away, just lie dormant until another day.

But for the moment, it’s done, and it will go into the basket to be revisited in six months.  Perhaps then I will understand what it is that connects me to this story.

…

Words today, 1,778 for a total of 55,065

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 25

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

Planning was the order of the day, and I needed to see where this story was going.

Firstly, a meeting with Maryanne’s handler will give some perspective on what might be in the mysterious diary.

After rescuing Jack’s mother, Jack has a host of questions; about his biological father, who he was, and what happened to him when he was sent to prison.

Jack makes further contact with his biological father, now that his mother is free, and considers a meeting, but he has to be careful where and when.

This meeting, if it happens, is to get some insight into who is after the diary, and for Jack to possibly mediate a resolution between all of the people who are after it.

It’s naïve of him to think he can tread a path between them and not get hurt in the process, but people do foolish things.

Remember that Rosalie is still out there with the diary and there might be/will be a concerted effort to find her. McCallister, the people who want the diary, Jack’s mother (now regretting dragging Jack into her problems), Maryanne, and Jacob are looking for her.

There might be a possibility that Rosalie might read the diary, and then tell Jack – an eventuality that might cause more trouble.

Jacob is out there, very close, watching Jack, thinking Jack will lead him to the diary. Jack is going to ask McCallister to tell him about Jacob, though I’m not sure whether I want him to consider the possibility of talking to him about the past.

Where is Jack’s mother’s twin (Her name is Chloe), and what is she doing? The last time Jack saw her, she was tied up in the empty apartment building. The conversation with her didn’t go so well.

…

Now, possible outcomes:

Jack’s mother isn’t Jack’s mother but Chloe masquerading as her,

Rosalie does in fact get caught, because she foolishly decided to find Jack and tell him what’s in the diary,

Jack’s meeting with McCallister is interrupted by both Maryanne and Jacob, bullets fly, and people get injured,

Jack’s mother is not the innocent she pretends to be,

Jack’s life is far from what he thought it was.

…

This story is going to be finished within the time limit, and the estimated 60,000 words.

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 24

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

So, here’s a question.

If your mother and her twin sister are identical twins, how will Jack know that he has rescued the right woman?

We all know how some identical twins like to play tricks on their friends, by substituting each other. It’s a wicked game on the unsuspecting, but for a criminal, it’s a ploy that just might work.

But there’s that other issue we have between the son and the mother, quite a few years of lying and half-truths to get past, and a great deal of explanation.

Perhaps their reuniting is not going to go the way the mother or the son thinks.

Meanwhile, Jack is working on the idea of visiting his real father and trying to get some explanations out of him.

And, where is Maryanne?

Is it a bit late in the day to say that I’m not quite sure how this is going to end because one is not coming to me that will satisfy tying up the loose ends.

I suspect tomorrow will be the day when the last planning will be done. It may cost a day of words, but it will get the story done.

It’s the pointy end of the project and it has to come together.

Doesn’t it?

More tomorrow.

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 29

A crisis of conscience?

When I started the story, it was the day after Agatha was found dead.  From there it was a story of how her ex-husband charted a path through the tangled web of her life and business.

It was going to be one told through the various people in her life and the effect they had, good and bad.  It was also meant to be a story of taking something good and twisting it, which is not what always happens but can.

I had always believed that being rich is a curse rather than a blessing, because you eventually start worrying about those around you who want to take it away, the fact, in the end, you can’t trust anyone.

I guess that it doesn’t happen a lot in real life.

Or maybe it does.

Is this why we believe rich people are eccentric?

These are only a few questions that are going to get a much bigger airing in the first edit, because at the moment, there are arts I’m not happy with.

I know who is responsible for her death.  Now.  For almost the whole of the story, I was like the reader, waiting to find out, and speculating along the way.  It’s not who you think.

…

Words today, 1,854, for a total of 53,287

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 23

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

It’s been a long, hard day, and working on both the A to Z blog challenge, and writing this book is taking its toll.

I’m surprised one lot of writing hasn’t impinged on the other.

Meanwhile, back on novel land where Jack is still reeling from the threats being issued by his real father, and torn between the idea of hunting him down, and getting to know more about him, he feels he should be more interested in knowing how and why his mother got involved with a man who eventually went to prison.

To try and further enlist Jack’s help in procuring the diary back, for the forces of good, she is taking him to see her handler, who maybe can shed some light on what is in the diary and how it can help them.

The trouble is, he still doesn’t trust her, and is worried that it might be a ploy to take him into ‘protective’ custody as leverage to get Marjorie to hand the diary over. That’s why he insists it’s in Trafalgar Square, a large open space where rules will have to be observed.

Tomorrow will bring about the rescue of Jack’s mother, some investigation gives rise to a lead that could be the possible place where she is being held.

But is she being held by McCallister, her twin sister, Jacob, or a cabal of all three?

More tomorrow.