It’s been another day of highs and lows, as the reality of the task ahead of me sinks in.
99 chapters, according to the plan. 99. That’s a lot of writing.
I started today focusing on the second Princess, Ophelia, who needs to find a way of fighting back against the forces of occupation.
The fight for the castle was basically over before it started. A people who had grown fat and lazy, in a realm where there’d been no fighting or any discord for many lifetimes.
It seemed to me that this is possible any time in the world we live in, that a nation with a vastly superior army could just come and take over without anything more than a whimper.
And there are nations out there that actively and subtlety seek world domination. Perhaps it might happen before we realise what’s happening.
But back in fantasy land, Princess Ophelia is on the move, and on reconnaissance, and the question is, will she be caught?
For the statisticians, 2,594 words written today for a running total of 24,992, just short of half way.
I think this story is going to be much longer than 50,000 words.
Before I started today’s block of writing, I loaded up my trust Excel spreadsheet which holds a loose plan of the Chapters to be written in the book.
Well, that’s what I started with, but since I’ve been melding old and new together, and the story is coming together, I needed to go forward and make sure the chapters to be written followed the storyline as it is now.
That was a shock. After an hour of moving stuff around, going over what’s been written, and checking the word counts, up to yesterday there was a disparity of 12, from the NaNo total of 20077, the sheet told me I had 20089.
So far so good.
Then I listed the headings of all the chapters to go and it came out as 99. Yes, 99 chapters. And I have got about 40 written. So let’s do the math, 20 days, 59 chapters, that’s 3 chapters a day.
Is it possible?
It might. If I start cutting now, but even then, it’s still a monumental task.
Stick with me and let’s both see how this goes.
For the statisticians, todays total is 2,321 words, for a so far total of 22,398.
And it seems there is some. The might be a vaccine for COVID 19, if everything goes well. I mean, we know that it’s for 90% of people, but we don’t know how long the immunity lasts, something tells me the tests need to go on for a few more months before they have answers to critical questions.
They also say there is another treatment available that can be given to people just turned positive, and who are expected to suffer badly from COVID, and that it will lessen it’s effects.
But, and there is always a but, it depends on who gets it first, and that seems to me to be who put up the most money. I doubt a small country like us would be able to match the bigger countries so I guess we’ll have to wait in line.
Good news on the vaccine, bad news on where we are on the globe.
I also just read an article of the last flight of a 747 Jumbo Jet. That plane change the face of flying for us, tucked away over 12,000 miles from anywhere, and I got to fly in a very new British Airways 747 many years ago and it was an amazing experience.
It’s sad that such a plane is no longer financially viable.
It seems airlines bottom lines are driving the planes we fly in these days, and it will also see the end of the Airbus A380. I’m glad I convinced my better half to fly in one when they were quite new, and it was an amazing experience that such a large aircraft could be so quiet and comfortable, even tucked away in the sardine can down back.
Looks like this is turning out to be bad news…
Which brings me to the event that no one wants to be reminded about, the fact Election Night on CNN didn’t run for the ‘Election Night’, it ran for over 4 days straight. Aside from saying the same stuff over and over about 200 times in 300 different ways, surely people could count faster. The only excitement was when new figures came in.
I wasn’t really interested in the outcome, just purely the numbers, until the networks (TV I’m assuming) called it for Biden. How could a media network call the winner of an election. Isn’t that the responsibility of the electoral bodies? And oddly enough, I was expecting civil war to break out in the streets of the states where there were ‘contentious’ issues.
Let’s hope for the ordinary family who just want to get on with their lives, not get COVID, and get back to work, it doesn’t.
With the first three sections down, I’m now onto the fourth, the series of events that kicks off the quest.
I’m juggling a lot of characters at the moment, and it’s getting difficult to get the time line of each event, and character, in chronological order. I don’t want to have a character at two events when it is not possible.
So, slowing down the process, I have implemented a chart, much like a spreadsheet, detailing events, characters in it, and when. Overall, there is a timeline, so I can see when two events are happening at the same time.
And this is hard to put to words because only one scene can be written at a time, and sometimes this makes the story a little disjointed. I’m working on how to minimise it, and make sure everyone ends up where they’re supposed to be, before, during, and after.
So much for that.
Something else I had in the back of mind, one of those thoughts you have just before going to sleep, and thinking about the next part, I think I will make a slight change to one characters motivation, the one I had in mind for a while doesn’t fit the new narrative of the new chapters written.
I guess it happens, as you proceed, things change.
I have roughly written the first 3 sections of the story now, about 16 chapters of varying sizes, and I’m up to the cataclysmic event that sets the real story in motion.
I sometimes find that setting up the story can sometimes take longer than writing the part I really wanted to get to.
Equally, I sometimes find that I will write a chapter, or piece that is further on in the story, because inspiration for that seems to fill my head rather than for the part I’m trying to write.
Oddly, sometimes when I finally catch up, it fits right in, perfectly.
And sometimes it doesn’t.
But this usually only happens when I have roughly mapped the story out in outline form, which, because I want to get this finished, I have done.
Progress today was excellent, and I’m pleased with the parts I’ve done, or revised simply because when I was looking at it, it didn’t look right. Perhaps I’ll be less fussy as the time runs out and there’s much to be done.
For the statisticians, I wrote 1,782 words today, for a total of 17,439 so far.
I don’t feel like this book is getting anywhere fast, but I have managed to complete the first and second sections, after a fashion. Some editing is going to be needed.
That basically gets the introductions to the principal characters out of the way.
Now, it’s onto the a rather horrible few chapters where there’s fighting, death, mostly death (those who saw The Princess Bride will know what this means) and general mayhem where in the confusion a daring escape is made, and a mission of utmost importance is carried out.
And this before the real story gets underway.
The next day or so will tidy these chapters up, and then we can get onto the fun part.
For the statisticians, todays effort was 2,551 words for a total of 15,657.
I’ve turned my sights on the other side, what might be called the bad guys. Oddly what was going through my mind was the old Hollywood maxim that bad guys wear black, and as I was writing their introduction to the story, I had two if them definitely dressed in black.
It also speaks of dark times that are coming, and might easily be mistaken, at the beginning, of just another storm front that heralds the cold and bitter winter.
And it also sows the seeds of what causes a certain event that invokes a period of upheaval in the realm, and those that are major players at the outset, and some who find themselves thrust unwillingly into fray later on.
There will be other events before we get down to the main story.
As for the logistics, todays word total is 2,028, for a total so far of 13,106 words. Progress is being made, but today was a little difficult.
The nights are cool, now, as we head towards summer where we’re expecting it to be a lot warmer. But, for now, the conditions are much easier than if it was in the morning.
My granddaughters favourite event is the high jump. It is by and large the most interesting of all, where where the 19 competitors each take three turns to achieve a height, and as it goes up, the numbers get less.
It starts at about 75 cms, and goes up in 5 cm increments. It can, and sometimes does. The last time the highest jump was 115 cm, and my granddaughter reached 110 cm, and only just missed 115 cm. Next time.
Her second favourite event is the hurdles, perhaps because it’s jumping, and is quite good at it, not knocking over any hurdles. There’s the 70 meters, 80 meters, and 100 meters. She did the 80 meters in under 19 seconds which is a personal best. I imagine she’ll get faster.
Next in line is the long jump, and yes, it’s jumping, but there’s a trick to it, you have to get your foot inside the board, not over it m and she has trouble not overstepping. But, she had three jumps, and got it right on the final attempt
Then we have the discus. It’s an interesting event, and there are so many different styles. Some do it really well, most probably need a lot more training, but get a throw out there. Several this time sprayed it, and every time there’s a few near misses. We all know now to keep your your eyes on it. We have two outside the white line, and one good throw, and it’s a personal best.
In between events we get to a little stargazing, and usually watch the moon rising, and then use an app called Sky Map to locate the planets. And then, since I’ve just updated my smartphone to a Galaxy 20 note, just the average one, so I can try and take some better night photos, and one is at the top of this post.
There was an 800 meter event, and she did well, even though so early in the season fitness is an issue and in such an event it takes a toll. Previously she has done a 1,500 meter race and that was a trial more than an event, and it was good in a sense that it highlighted the fact she needs to do some training.
It ends this week at a reasonable hour, and we all go home.
Next week is another week, and the opportunity to improve. What I like about this for of competition is that the focus is not on who came first or last, but the fact you may have improved, ie, a new personal best.
It’s a great concept that gets rids of the winners and losers, and makes the athletes all winners, and know that getting better is within their grasp.
Progress is good, at least we’re heading in the right direction.
It’s curious what you think about when you’re creating characters, and then breathe life into them.
Like Marigold, who is loosely based around my eldest granddaughter, who likes to toss a bit of inspiration into the mix. She wants Marigold to be a vain, annoying, abrupt so and so, much like what she calls the rich kids who have too much time and money on their hands, and a deep contempt for the plebs as she calls them.
Royalty, much like movie stars, well some anyway, are demanding, greedy, and difficult. Well, that’s Marigold from the start. It doesn’t mean she won’t learn a few life lessons soon enough, but she will be the proverbial fish out of water.
Ophelia is a lot different, the explorer type, not exactly Dora the explorer, but my middle granddaughter liked the idea of her being a scientist, or in those days of yore, an alchemist, though back in those days people often though of those type of people as witches or worse.
Then there’s James, who had his story charted today, the Prince who would be king, one day, He has an enormous responsibility on his shoulders, an the burden of having to meet expectations that he believes are far beyond his capabilities. He’s 18, needs to become a knight, and a leader, and sooner rather than later.
His biggest enemy is his fear of failure.
Well, there it sits for the moment. We have more characters, but the real story is about to begin, and the children of the crown are about to be tested.
The boring stuff: A total of 2,794 words were written today, some joyfully others with difficulty, for a running total of 11,078.
With a head start last night which gave me the inspiration to write this section, I was able to finish it off and get it down.
Actually, I’m quite pleased with myself in that regard, but disappointed in the fact I didn’t get time to work on the next part before tomorrow.
Too many other distractions, like elections in other countries, though I’m still wondering why it had any interest for me.
One thing that has surprised me is the lengths some people will go to trash another candidate, and that, to me, is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Surely there’s another way to make a point, like point out all the problems that will happen with policy decisions, or the fact there are no policies.
Anyway, the next few days will be in the news, no doubt.
Thank heaven we don’t have any of that nonsense here. We just call both leaders and the politicians idiots, and vote for the one whose policy aligns with our views, and let them get on with their boozy lunches, affairs, and childlike spats in the parliamentary chambers, and hope, eventually, something gets done.
Just in case you were wondering, today’s word count is 2,480, for a total so far of 8,284 words.
Thrills, Spills, and just a dash of Romance 