Tag: NaNoWriMo

A score to settle – The Second Editors Draft – Day 5

The time has come to work on the second draft for the editor, taking into account all of the suggested changes, and there are quite a few. So much for thinking I could put in an almost flawless manuscript.

…

Today is another day for character development, and this time it is Inspector Delacrat.

The question is, how do you maintain that air of honesty and integrity in a country that is run by a cruel and murderous military junta.

How do you explain the disappearance of ordinary citizens during the night, when they are reported as missing?

There is, of course, something about the man that makes you think twice about whether he is to be tarred with the same brush as that of the military, or he’s just an Inspector in the police trying to do his job to the best of his ability, without running foul of the junta.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Something else to be aware of, there are rebels, dissidents, and revolutionaries, all lurking in the background, some overt, some invisible, all working towards the removal of the junta.

The conference is a means to get an international eye on the plight of the country, so will something happen?

Will the rebels make their move?

Will Delacrat find out, and will he try to stop it?

Is our main character’s real reason for being in the country to aid the rebels, or just ensure the safety of one of the delegates?

These are all questions that will be looked at as the story progresses.

A Score to Settle – The Second Editors Draft – Day 1

The time has come to work on the second draft for the editor, taking into account all of the suggested changes, and there are quite a few. So much for thinking I could put in an almost flawless manuscript.

…

Those first thoughts were, what led up to the start of the story, a veritable getting back in the saddle after the metaphorical horse has tossed you off with life-threatening injuries were met with enthusiasm.

That’s basically the first chapter, or it might finish up as a prologue. There are arguments for and against prologues, so perhaps as the month and the story progresses, it might become clearer what is needed.

So, where are we?

Somewhere in Africa, a country that is run by the military with a so-called puppet president. A country that is ripe for revolution, where the people are plotting to take their country back.

With help, but just whose help is nebulous.

In the meantime, there’s a human rights conference about to happen, a rather ironic event in a country supposedly at the forefront of perpetrating such offences.

Why is our fractured main character there? To protect one of the keynote speakers and convenors of the conference, supposedly without her knowledge, but of course, secrets are only secrets if they remain so.

And with governments involved, nothing remains secret for long.

That’s the premise so far.

Today is much about fine-tuning the background of the main character, and what came before.

A Score to Settle – The Second Editors Draft – Day 1

The time has come to work on the second draft for the editor, taking into account all of the suggested changes, and there are quite a few. So much for thinking I could put in an almost flawless manuscript.

…

Those first thoughts were, what led up to the start of the story, a veritable getting back in the saddle after the metaphorical horse has tossed you off with life-threatening injuries were met with enthusiasm.

That’s basically the first chapter, or it might finish up as a prologue. There are arguments for and against prologues, so perhaps as the month and the story progresses, it might become clearer what is needed.

So, where are we?

Somewhere in Africa, a country that is run by the military with a so-called puppet president. A country that is ripe for revolution, where the people are plotting to take their country back.

With help, but just whose help is nebulous.

In the meantime, there’s a human rights conference about to happen, a rather ironic event in a country supposedly at the forefront of perpetrating such offences.

Why is our fractured main character there? To protect one of the keynote speakers and convenors of the conference, supposedly without her knowledge, but of course, secrets are only secrets if they remain so.

And with governments involved, nothing remains secret for long.

That’s the premise so far.

Today is much about fine-tuning the background of the main character, and what came before.

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 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.

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

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

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 28

Whittling the suspect list

…

It’s not the General

It’s not Adria or her daughter.  No one could be more distressed at the turn of events than both of them.

It’s not Genevieve, though there is a long-standing jealousy that could have been construed as a motive, but there was no means or opportunity.

It’s not either of the personal assistants.

It’s not any of the board of trustees.

It might be one of the workers, but their sentiments were not enough to deem them viable murderers. 

This was a long and calculated attack, aimed at disabling not killing the victim.  This was someone close to her and had been given cause to embark on such an operation.  Or perhaps for some other reason, quite unrelated, on someone else’s behalf.

The police are still chasing the most convenient suspects.

Michael on the other hand was not looking at those close to her.

Howard Joffs, her father, and her personal staff in her London residence, because the only other place the poison could be administered was at home.

…

Words today, 1,920, for a total of 51,433

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 22

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.

…

I need a plan.

This lark of making it up as I go is getting a little more difficult because I had an idea where this was leading, and now it seems to have hit a brick wall.

We have a friend in hiding with a mysterious diary, we have a mother who is missing, we have an agent of sorts following Jack around in the hope it will lead to the mysterious diary, and we have said agent and Jack looking for Jacob.

Why?

In my book, you don’t go looking for trouble.

What these two intrepid adventurers should be doing is trying to find Jack’s mother.

That, of course, leads to the other important question, who has her, if anyone does?

OK, so let’s let loose the diary’s owner, a man named McCallister, who coincidentally is father to both Jack and Jacob.

What’s in the diary?

This needs some background, and it needs to have the seeds of the plot sown earlier in the story when Jack was investigating who Jacob was. He would find out who Jacob’s father was, and likely his own.

A part of the current plot is that McCallister calls Jack and wants to exchange the diary for his mother. So that will mean McCallister has her.

I had considered that perhaps her sister was holding her captive, but why would she after all these years?

So, from her…

The call from McCallister, Maryanne needs to draw on her organisation’s resources to find McCallister (he was in jail but escaped, ok the back story is being virtually written on the fly) because of what’s in the diary, and he needs it to stay alive. What’s in it? One would have to presume it had something to do with his life before producing children, and that was as a politician.

So, was he a corrupt politician, or did he know of one, or two, maybe? Politics can be dangerous, as well as lucrative.

As they say, the plot thickens!

More tomorrow.

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 27

Round and round and round we go

…

If nothing had happened to Agatha, then the General would have walked away, his reputation and bankability intact.

Perhaps his biggest problem, one of many, was that he was a friend of Agatha’s father.  Perhaps Agatha’s father’s biggest problem was his ego, and the fact his daughter was smarter than he would ever give her credit for.

The General had a secret, and as we all know, secrets are the hardest things to be kept.  Someone knows, someone always knows, and that person cannot be trusted with secrets, cannot trust themselves with secrets.

Have you ever tried to keep a secret?  It’s nigh on impossible.

Some people can.  Unfortunately, none in this story can.  But the problem is they are not willing to share, but will eventually because they have a momentary aberration, or it just comes out in normal conversation.

People can’t hold those sorts of secrets, not when it concerns someone as important as the General/.  Someone else must be told so it doesn’t feel like they’re the only one holding down the most important and incredible fact in the world.

Pity then that Michael knows the friend of a friend of a friend who has a relative, that has that secret.

…

Words today, 1,998, for a total of 49,513