NaNoWriMo Days 4,5 & 6: Victory and Progress

SOUNDTRACK: President Barack Hussein Obama’s Victory Speech at Grant Park and BestRadio (iTunes), Live from France!

6 November day total: 1025

On 4 November all of my thoughts and hopes were on the Election in the United States. The big date, important to many people across the world. I cried with joy and relief: President Barack Hussein Obama – a dream realized. Champagne – I drank glass after glass and the next morning, no hangover. I hardly thought about NaNoWriMo. I spent the day in contemplation as well as reading and listening to news and opinions from around the world. I emailed friends. I thank and send love to everyone who voted for Barack Obama. But there is no time to rest – we still have a lot of work to do.

Back to NaNoWriMo: Day 6 and I am so pleased – I wrote 1,025 words today. There is a new character and her name is Ruby. She lives in a cave (or cabin, haven’t decided yet) in the hills above the village. Today the story began with the Sweets Lady, her thoughts came through as soon I placed my fingers on the keyboard. She has a store now and Trill works her old cart. He has an ambition – to become a Master Confectioner & Chocolatier. His inspiration is Jacques Torres. Perhaps Trill’s ambition will expand to cakes and pastries.

I don’t know who Ruby is yet – but I think she will be an interesting girl, whether friend or foe.

What I’ve learned so far: that I can’t talk myself into relaxing in order to write. I really don’t know what helps me to or prevents me from writing. Some say – write no matter what. I’ve never been able to do that. If I can’t connect, if I don’t feel the characters in me and hear their voices; if I can’t close my eyes and imagine the scene, it’s no good. I feel these characters and place now, formed in my imagination.

The Week One inspirational email came from Phillip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials. He wrote that page 70 is the hardest, that for him the task of finishing a novel becomes overwhelming at that point. But if one can write 70 pages, then 71 can’t be that hard. And you keep on going, doing as many pages as you can a day (for him 3), et voila, 100 pages without realizing.

if you do love reading, if you cannot imagine going on a journey without a book in your pocket or your bag, if you fret and fidget and become uncomfortable if you’re kept away from your reading for too long, if your worst nightmare is to be marooned on a desert island without a book—then take heart: there are plenty of us like you. And if you tell a story that really engages you, we are all potential readers [of your novel].

Good luck!

Philip Pullman

I’m looking forward to next week’s inspirational email. At Phillip’s website there is a link to a fantastic email interview he did with Peter T. Chattaway, the Christian film critic at FilmChat blog about The Gold Compass movie (upcoming at the time) and the His Dark Materials Trilogy: Materialism, Christianity, Atheism, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkein.