Tag: YA

NaNoWriMo Day 30 + 11

Yes, this project is still moving through the water, albeit very slowly, but progress is being made.

When I woke up this morning I realised I had not changed the text of this post. It was the last update.

That’s now been corrected.

What has happened in the last session is based on two things, the first, the notion that a story can start out to be correct, but over time and retelling, it can change. That same story can have different versions, in different places, depending on who is telling the sotry.

This is how it is with the legend, and the quest it is based on.

It must come as a shock to realise that Marigold had been told a story that was basically not right. You might argue that a story is just that, a story, but in those times, a legend was what we call history these days.

And, like the bible, that history, when it finally gets to paper and print, can be substantially different depending on who is doing the translation.

The second, that a parent will tell a child, and others, what they want them to know, and not necessarily what it the whole truth. This is particularly relevant when it’s by those in charge. It is based on the fact you can say the same thing over and over again until you believe it yourself, and it becomes so powerful that others believe it too, because of the fervour and passion with which it is imparted.

For those keeping an eye on the word count, this session, 4,086 words for a running total of 118,020.

NaNoWriMo Day 30 + 10

Yes, this project is still moving through the water, albeit very slowly, but progress is being made.

THe story has me hooked, and despite the fact I keep putting it to one side, I still keep going back to it to write another piece.

The stories come to me at night, the dead of night, and, really, I should be sleeping. Then, after writing the piece, it mulls over in my mind while I’m asleep, and I go back to it in the morning to revise, and, lo and behold, I have another idea.

This lot of writing highlights the taciturn nature of Marigold when she has to tolerate fools. Well, in the first instance someone who is supposed to be helping her in her quest, and secondly with the man she was supposed to marry but now wants her dead.

Yes, it’s a bit like real life headlines torn from the national dailies, sometimes.

I wonder if they had newspapers back in the dark ages???

For those keeping an eye on the word count, this session, 4,228 words for a running total of 113,934.

NaNoWriMo Day 30 + 9

It’s the ninth update after we were supposed to finish the November book.

And, yes, we’re well past the 50,000 words we were supposed to write. In this case, we’re past 100,000 too.

This session has seen Marigold discovering the disadvantages of magic, not that she has any, except to the fact she can hear her younger sister Ophelia’s voice in her head.

But before all that comes to pass, Marigold finds herself in a dilemma, having to go out and hunt for her own food. Being a Princess, that was all done for her, no going out into the wild and having to kill innocent creatures. Before, it was just meat.

It’s just another of those life lessons, like fighting the enemy to stay alive.

How much can a princess bear? Stay turned, it can only get worse.

For this session the word count has increased by 3,982 words, for a running total of 109,686.

NaNoWriMo Day 30 + 8

This is the eighth update since the end of November.

Since the last update, I have been working on the outline, and fleshing out some of the chapters.

Of particular interest, for me that is, is what came to me at the most unexpected time, doesn’t that always happen, great ideas and never a piece of paper to write it down.

So, hold that thought, became my mantra for several hours until I got home and I put it down. in the meantime, the ideas had grown and the whole of the eighth stone and leading to the ninth came to me in a flurry of words.

I could hardly write it down fast enough.

This means the plan is now set through to the penultimate event.

Progress indeed.

I hope by the last update I’ll have the whole story through to the end, at least in outline form.

For the bean counters, this session sees another 3,185 words for a running total of 105,704.

NaNoWriMo Day 30 + 7

This is the seventh update since the end of the month, and is nearly the end of another month. Without the dedication to the task as happened in November, it is harder to find the time, particularly when the following month, December, is given over to preparing for the Christmas festivities.

But I have been hiving out an hour or two every day to writing and planning.

For instance, I hadn’t much of a plan for what was to happen after the fifth stone, and a basic concept for the sixth. These have now been fleshed out and various chapters written.

I’m still working on the parallel events happening back at the castle with Ophelia while Marigold is out on the quest, and still needs some more work.

I have an idea what might happen, but, as always happens, when writing, the story tends to take a different course. This time I’ve tried to steer the ship on the right course, and not run aground.

For the bean counters, this session has produced 4,236 words, for a running total of 102,519.

Yes, we’ve cracked the magical 100,000.

NaNoWriMo – Day 30 + 6

Work on the novel started in November proceeds. Whereas the work usually finds its way to the bottom drawer, I’m determined to finish it.

I had hoped it would be by the end of December, but stories have a way of writing themselves, and not necessarily to your timetable.

Just finished anther two chapters, and working on another four. I’m trying not to get confused, as sometimes happens when the timeline gets a change or two.

However, I reworked the plan to take into account changes that were needed back a few chapters because I hadn’t quite finished the story arc. I can see how television series can get a little disjointed when not quite sticking to the individual story arcs within the major story line.

Yes, it all sounds complicated and it is, which means I will have to spend some more time in planning.

For the word counters, the total for this session is 4,155 words, giving a running total of 98,283. There is every possibility that the next block will take us over the 100,000 marks.

NaNoWriMo – Day 30 + 5

The novel proceeds, though not at the same pace as it did last November.

THe main thing here is that I have not just wrapped it up and put it in the bottom drawer can come back to it another time. Already done that, which is why I made it this years project, so that I could get it done.

But I underestimated the depth of tghe project, thinking I could get it finished.

The trouble is, these types of stories write themselves, and even if you are working to an outline, there’s always more to write to fiull in the gaps you couldn’t forsee when you write that outline.

Like Marigold. I forgot that, like my grand daughter, she had hidden talents and depths which never presented themselves when I first started.

Yes, she was a right royal ‘princess’ in unroyal ways, and the notion that over the quest she had to go on, that she would slowly, subtly, change from a bratty pest to a useful member of the team was envisaged, some of those new trait, thoughts, and abilities have presented themselves when least expected.

Now, she’s almost unrecognisable as the same girl who set out.

But the biggest part of the new story is her sister, Ophelia. I had not really fleshed out her character, not being too sure what she could get up to at home, but she is beginning to shine, and not in a way she might have envisioned for herself.

Perhaps adversary is a good teacher.

For the bean counters, whilst more has been written as various parts of the story proceed as ideas present, the latest word count is 3,245 words for a total so far of 94,128.

NaNoWriMo – Day 30 + 4

There ought to be a law against Christmas. OK, that makes me sound like the Grinch, and, after battling the crowds in shops and at the mall, it was better when COVID was circulating like a fire out of control.

I know that sounds bad, but I have better things to do than spend hours, first trying to find a parking spot, second, battle crowds, third, try and find a seat to get lunch, and fourth, wait forever to get out, stuck in a traffic jam – inside the shipping centre.

Just what are people thinking?

Anyway, I eventual go back home, after losing five hours of writing time, and being angry made it difficult to write. If only Chester was still her. I could vent to him, and he’d understand perfectly my annoyance.

And sage advice, why did you promise to go in the first place! Silly you!!

But eventually I got pen to paper and worked on the next part of the adventure, and mull over the legend, the one that few know the whole story of.

For the bean counters, latest word count is 3,254 for a running total of 90,883.

NaNoWriMo – Day 30 + 3

Well, I’m still writing, though since the start of the grand children’s school holidays has arrived and I’m now the official child minder.

It’s just a constant job jeeping them fed, and amused (I’d like a dollar for every time they’ve said they’re bored) and it is making it difficult to write.

So, it is left to the wee small hours of the morning to get it done, and it is proceeding slowly.

Yesterday I hit a wall (not literally) and couldn’t progress any part of the story because my brain had ceased to work. That’s usually writer’s block or something like that, but it was a mental thing. I had three chapters on the go, and in writing a later one, I’d hoped it would fill in the gaps for the two prior chapters.

It did, eventually, and now it’s flowing again.

Until I get to that great white plain of nothingness, heading for the lookout.

For the bean counters, latest word count is 3,322 for a running total of 87,629.

NaNoWriMo – Day 30 + 2

The story continues.

I have spent the last few days catching up with everything that didn’t get done during November, and find that only about half of what I wanted to do.

The in tray is about seven inches high, and daunting.

But I haven’t given up and I’m pressing forward and got another two chapters written, and a good start on another.

A direction I thought the story might go a week or so back now seems not to be the right way, and I’m outlining this and plot it’s impact on later storylines.

It’s like hitting a fork in the road, and you’re not sure which direction to take.

For the statisticians, a total of 3,141 words for the two days, making a total of 84,107.