NaNoWriMo Day 8: In Quito, Ecuador

SOUNDTRACK: La Mas Completa Coleccion y 12 Grandes Exitos (Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitan) Beautiful Day (U2, Live From Slane Castle) and Kill Bill Volume II

Today’s word count: 1,204
Word Total: 4,046

I missed the 2,050 word goal by 846 words and according to the progress meter, I am doing exceptionally bad. Chris of NaNoWriMo posted this message on the 5th.

I spoke with the Great NaNoWriMo Calendar this morning, and she said we should be at about 8333 words by the end of the day today. She also told me that some of you ignored her suggestion to be at 6666 words yesterday, and that she may let you slide on that if you get to 8333 tonight.

I don’t know what may let you slide means. I’m not discouraged at all, in fact I’m pleased with how the plot has developed. I finished Chapter three. Yesterday I excerpted part of that chapter: the description of Trills chocolate pantry and Ruby dancing around the living room to Hole. The scene continues with Trill entering the room from the kitchen where he’s been preparing cioccolato caldo. They argue, settle down and begin to talk about Sweets Lady, who now has a name: Nesha. I searched on Nesah after I wrote it found out that it’s a real name, Russian in origin, and means pure. Nesha is Ruby’s mother. She mailed Ruby a postcard from Quito. She is there to learn more about Ecuadorian cacoa.

Chapter four is about Nesha in Ecuador. There are three new characters, two are cacoa experts. Nesha has already faced racism in Ecuador. This is appropriate for this story given that racism is a problem in Ecuador and many countries and something that people of color have to deal with.

Cocoa seeds in the fruit or pocha. Public Domain Image. Source: WikiCommons used with perimission from PD-USGOV-USDA-ARS

NaNoWriMo Day 7: Character Development and Time Shift

SOUNDTRACK (IN PROGRESSION): Highway to Hell, (AC/DC), The Offspring Greatest Hits (except Why Don’t You Get a Job – don’t like it), Burning Inside (Ministry, The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste), Jesus Built My Hot Rod (Ministry, Psalm 69), Hollywood Babylon, Vampira, London Dungeon (Misfits, Collection), Pretty On The Inside and Live Through This (Hole), Questions (INXS, Welcome To Wherever You Are), Psycho Killer (Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense Special Edition), Serenade (Steve Miller Band, Fly Like An Eagle 30th Anniversary Special Limited Edition), Living in the U.S.A. (Sailor, Steve Miller Band), Middle of the Road and Thumbelina (The Pretenders, Learning to Crawl: Remastered Bonus Track Version), a U2 Set – Desire, Bullet the Blue Sky (Rattle and Hum), and Elevation (2005 Live from Milan), Violent Femmes (Violent Femmes).

We begin with a message from NaNoWriMo central:

I hope you’re all getting on towards 11,666 words! Tonight at midnight marks the end of Week One.

Happy writing to all, and to all a good weekend.

Lindsey

I’m not even close: 2,842 -11,666 = – 8842

Well, let’s update our total and see what the progress chart says (tick, tock, tick, tock …)

Considering my current pace, 2050 words per day are needed to make the 50,000 word goal. Today’s word total is 1,504 an increase of 479 words over yesterday. If I can manage to write 546 more words a day, that’s only 67 more words than today, I’ll achieve the 2050 word goal.

I began this good day of writing at 14:40 (2:40 p.m). Ruby’s personality is developing: she is intelligent, quick-tempered, and an off and on friend of Trills since childhood. He’s angry with her: don’t know why yet.

Time and personality are today’s themes. The story left-off yesterday with Ruby walking across the street to investigate the strange sight of a person sticking their head out of the window in the rain with no intention of moving from that position. At that moment both Ruby and Trill were teenagers. Phillip Pullam said that for him page 70 is where all the contradictions in his novels are revealed. For this novel, page 9 is where the time shift begins. When Ruby arrived at Trill’s house, stood under the window and yelled up at him, “Hey. What are you doing that for,” both she and Trill morphed into their twenties. The parents, downstairs with Bounder, vanished and Trill now lived alone in his childhood home; perhaps his parents died or retired and moved to a sunny climate. Oh the fun and adventure of free writing. I’m happy with this development because Trill and Ruby are much more interesting. The Sweets Lady didn’t make an appearance. Bounder is a red Greyhound.