To be honest I didn’t think I’d get this far, because it takes a lot of effort to syphon time away from everything else I have on my plate.
I wish I was a full time writer.
That sounds like the title to a song, doesn’t it.
But, like everyone else who is trying to manage and juggle everything they have going on, I’m no worse of than just about ever other writer that’s not selling a million books a year.
That would be great, eh? A million books!
One day.
Maybe.
But, this story will continue after the end date, because I’ve made a promise that by the end of the year I would have at the very least a readable draft for them to read (and be critical).
Phew.
Time for some rest, and pick it up tomorrow.
For the record, todays effort produced 2,958 words, for a 30 day total of 78,488 words. That’s 57 chapters out of a planned 99.
I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t achieve what I set out to achieve.
Just not everything I intended to achieve.
But, that’s the nature of writing.
Of course, had I set my sights on a book that needed only 50,000+ words I would have completed the novel by now, and that is the case for the last three years.
This year I set out to push myself and finish a novel that I have been hunting and pecking over for two or three years. It needed something like a NaNoWriMo to screw up the courage to make an attempt to finish it.
At the outset I failed to realise the story was not going to fit in the constraints of 50,000 words. To be honest I had no idea how long it would be, but all I had to do was to let the story tell itself.
It did.
And I discovered the characters didn’t want to fit into a small box, they wanted to grow, they wanted to change, each following a path they never expected to follow.
And I’ve been with them, and they still have a ways to go.
Tomorrow will not be the end of their story.
For the bean counters, todays word count is a little less than the last few days, some 2,641 words, for a running total of 75,530 words.
This is going to be some story when it’s finished!
West Lake is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, China. It is divided into five sections by three causeways. There are numerous temples, pagodas, gardens, and artificial islands within the lake.
Measuring 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) in length, 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) in width, and 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) in average depth, the lake spreads itself in an area totaling 6.5 square kilometers (2.5 square miles).
The earliest recorded name for West Lake was the “Wu Forest River”, but over time it changed to two distinct names. One is “Qiantang Lake”, due to the fact that Hangzhou was called “Qiantang” in ancient times. The other, “West Lake”, due to the lake being west of the city
It’s about to get busy, with a number of activities planned, and the warmth of the day is starting to make an impact.
The tour starts in the car park about a kilometer away, but the moment we left the car park we were getting a taste of the park walking along a tree-lined avenue.
When we cross the road, once again dicing with death with the silent assassins on motor scooters.
We are in the park proper, and it is magnificent, with flowers, mostly at the start hydrangeas and then any number of other trees and shrubs, some carved into other flower shapes like a lotus.
Then there was the lake and the backdrop of bridges and walkways.
.
And if you can tune out the background white noise the place would be great for serenity and relaxation.
That, in fact, was how the boat ride panned out, about half an hour or more gliding across the lake in an almost silent boat, by an open window, with the air and the majestic scenery.
No, not that boat, which would be great to have lunch on while cruising, but the boat below:
Not quite in the same class, but all the same, very easy to tune out and soak it in.
It was peaceful, amazingly quiet, on a summery day
A pagoda in the hazy distance, an island we were about to circumnavigate.
Of all the legends, the most touching one is the love story between Bai Suzhen and Xu Xi’an. Bai Suzhen was a white snake spirit and Xu Xi’an was a mortal man.
They fell in love when they first met on a boat on the West Lake, and got married very soon after.
However, the evil monk Fa Hai attempted to separate the couple by imprisoning Xu Xi’an. Bai Suzhen fought against Fa Hai and tried her best to rescue her husband, but she failed and was imprisoned under the Leifeng Pagoda by the lake.
Years later the couple was rescued by Xiao Qing, the sister of Baisuzhen, and from then on, Bai Suzhen and Xu Xi’an lived together happily.
The retelling of the story varied between tour guides, and on the cruise boat, we had two. Our guide kept to the legend, the other tour guide had a different ending.
Suffice to say it had relevance to the two pagodas on the far side of the lake.
There was a cafe or restaurant on the island, but that was not our lunch destination.
Nor were the buildings further along from where we disembarked.
All in all the whole cruise took about 45 minutes and was an interesting break from the hectic nature of the tour.
Oh yes, and the boat captain had postcards for sale. We didn’t buy any.
Lunch
At the disembarkation point there was a mall that sold souvenirs and had a few ‘fast food’ shops, and a KFC, not exactly what we came to China for, but it seemed like the only place in town a food cautious Australian could eat at.
And when tried to get in the door, that’s where at least 3 busloads were, if they were not in the local Starbucks. Apparently, these were the places of first choice wherever we went.
The chicken supply by the time we got to the head of the line amounted to pieces at 22.5 RMB a piece and nuggets. Everything else had run out, and for me, there were only 5 pieces left. Good thing there were chips.
And Starbucks with coffee and cheesecake.
At least the setting for what could have been a picnic lunch was idyllic.
In a mad rush to get the story finished, but that now won’t happen in the time frame.
I’m in the middle of the quest to recover the artifacts, and Marigold has so much more to learn about the realm and herself.
And I’ve notice a little of what’s happening in our world here is creeping into the story, and it seems to me that we never seem to learn from our mistakes.
Our leaders, that is. Given a chance to make a real change after a one in a hundred year event, they’re ignoring the possibilities, and trying to consolidate or improve their power over the people.
But I digress…
Some of my disappointment is spilling over, and I’ll to be careful to keep it out.
In my stories, there’s always a happy ending.
For the bean counters, todays word count is 3,226 words, not much less than yeaterday, for a running total of 72,839.
I suspect this story is not going to come out under 120,000, until the first edit of course.
I guess quite a few of us on this journey would be saying the same thing.
Trying to fully devote yourself each and every day for as long as you can write might seem quite simple, like a mechanic can repairing engines, like an accountant poring over the accounts.
Well, it’s not that simple.
For starters you have to have a continuous train of thought, pushing the plotline along, not just for the one or two or three thousand words that are required as a bare minimum each day, but carry that forth over the thirty days of the month, leading to fifty, sixth or ninety thousand words of coherent story.
Most writers take a year, sometimes more to get that total.
They often write, two, three, four hundred words in a session, perhaps over a day, or several.
I’m amazed that my total so far is very close to seventy thousand words. That’s nearly a novel and a half.
But, it’s not going to be the whole novel when the thirty days are up.
Enough lamenting….
For the statisticians, todays count was 3,242 words for a running total of 69,613.
A good day perhaps, for writing. I’m further advanced, but I don’t feel like I’m getting to where I need to be.
I guess it’s ‘welcome to the world of writing’.
Some stories can be written in 30 days. I’ve done it myself three years running.
But, taking on a more complex writing project, not that I thought it would be at the time, has taught me to respect an old adage my father used a lot, a long time ago:
Rome wasn’t built in a day
It’s not the only one he used, but it’s the one I remember.
This project will take more than thirty days. I often wondered why some writers took years to finish a book, and now I know definitively why.
Next year I’ll take on something a little lighter in subject matter, plan for the fifty or chapters, and get it done.
This is one that I should have tackled within the other eleven months.
Still, four days to go, and anything can happen!
For the statisticians, todays word count is 3,074, for a running total of 66,371. That, in itself, is a lot of words.
I see the list of chapters to be written and groan. The story is flowing, and ideas that were mere headings some weeks ago are turning into parts of the tale.
A backstory is being told in the background, fleshing out more about the realm the people how they came to be in the seven kingdoms, and what happened to the original people.
It’s like writing the history of the world.
Then there’s the ten mini adventures in collecting the artifacts that will reunite all the realm in peace.
If only it was that simple in reality. For some reason, the various peoples of the world cannot seem to come together, and there always has to be at least one nation (or kingdom) that wants to dominate the rest.
Perhaps that is the one flaw of all men, we are all supposed to be equal, but in the eyes of some, that can never be.
IT’s probably why we write fairy tales. It’s easier to write a story to make it happen rather than sit down and make it happen in reality.
For those statiticians among us, 2,733 words for the day, making a running total of 60, 420 words.
So I just found out I hadn’t written a report for yesterday.
Done now.
AS for today. it was not as productive as it could be, and I’m falling behind.
But I did get to discuss plotlines with my eldest granddaughter, who is the role model for Marigold, well, she tells me how spoilt and complaining she is, and probably nothing like a real princess is.
Although there is a real life, wannabe princess who isn’t whom I’m sure Marigold will be like for only a short while before she wakes up to herself, and becomes the heroine.
Can’t say that will ever happen to the wannabe princess.
But, I digress.
Tomorrow I have to make up the word count because today was not very good.
For those counting, a daily total of 2,488, for a grand total of 57,687.
And Marigold, or whoever, just told me I should be working smarter not harder!
Thrills, Spills, and just a dash of Romance 