Progress report: Day 4
Day four of NaNo09 (or, as I prefer to think of it, The Month Of Writing Dangerously*), and I’m pleasantly surprised to report that all is going rather well. I’m up to 8.5K words and haven’t even written anything today yet; aiming for 10.5K by the end of the day.
This is well ahead of schedule compared to the 50K/30day daily average, but it was always my plan to hit the writing hard this week. I have a week off work (extra week of half term, as a consequence of working at a private school – bunch of slackers that we are), and I know that when I go back to school next week and for the rest of the month it’s going to be SO MUCH HARDER to find the time or energy to write.
So here I am, nose to the grindstone. Or rather, here I am, churning out a few non-NaNo words and wishing they could count towards my daily total.** I’m also editing a rather demanding book at the same time – written by a dyslexic author, and it’s really more of a ghost-write than an edit – and I have another client wanting to ring me from Germany to go through the query sheet I sent back with an edited manuscript, so all in all – not much of a holiday from work.
Specially for Steph – a while ago I invented a system for magic-use whereby mages need a paired individual who acts as a ’source’, or conduit through which magic power flows. The mage can draw on that power and shape it, but has no independent access to magic without their partner. Similarly the ’source’ individuals have no ability to shape magic or cast spells; they are simply passive channels.
My NaNo novel is an exploration of this idea. There are lots of social possibilities – pimps/whores, exploitation and trafficking, addiction, relationship formation and breakdown – and at the moment I’m not sure which way the development is going. I’ll keep you posted.
Back to it. 10.5K, here we come.
* Shamelessly paraphrased from the NaNoWriMo website. I’m nothing if not liberal with my plagiarism.
**Actually, that’s not such a bad idea. I should give my main character a blog and just cut/paste a load of posts from here… Maybe when I’m desperate at the end of the month.
Wow. I’m feeling really jealous of you. First off, you’re writing. Like, writing FICTION. And you’re doing it a lot. Second, you sound organized and planned and…with ideas.
I am so ungrounded right now I don’t know which way is up. My greatest accomplishment lately was finding a few old Nancy Drew books I didn’t have to add to my collection. This week I’ll have worked over full-time at the clinic thanks to the high volume of paranoids regarding the blasted (which is not the word I want to use) swine flu, and yes, I’ll call it swine flu and not worry about whether or not that makes people freak out and not want to eat pork even though you don’t get it from eating pork. If they don’t get afflicted with the flu, they’ll find me to contend with otherwise. GRR.
On the other hand, although I resent all the time it’s taking up and I’m especially resentful of even having to work in the first place (the holiday really spoiled me!), these extra hours are making up for the fact that I didn’t get paid while in England.
I’m off to deal with some editing clients myself. I’ve been putting them off and I still want to. Suddenly I feel like a huge fraud. I have no idea how to do a proper query letter and manuscript critique. At least, that’s how I feel. Nor do I want to. Hopefully the client doesn’t end up here and read this comment.
My good command of English is apparently slipping. Lately I’ve sounded like a half-wit. Sorry.