November is almost out and this blog had been sitting here, untouched, unvisited, unquestionably unloved.
So what has been occupying my time for the last 29ish days?
NaNoWriMo21
The challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. It's been quite a challenge and not just because I've had other things to do. Considering I only heard about this amazing annual event a few days before the start of November, the challenge was not only to write the number of words but also to come up with a story to write.
Sensible folk would have chosen something that required just their experience of the human condition, set in somewhere they know well and with characters that required little or no further back story to speak of. That was sensible folk.
After much twisting and turning I did come up with a story - requiring both plenty of research and, as it turned out, a notebook full of planning.
Right here I want to give a heads up to my family and all my Twitter followers who encouraged me along the way. Writing each evening, trying to maintain a pace of 1,667 words per day doesn't sound much, but it was. Life, as I was beginning to recognise it again, coffee with friends, reading, even planning meals, was sidelined. Unfortunately not all life can stop. Despite my great DIL visiting from Sydney and understanding my predicament with her usual thoughtfulness, a dental visit turned into a major time eater with subsequent further visits to Outer Mongolia, sorry, Malvern.
So last night, 28 days into November, I reached my 50,000 words, or just over. The story hasn't ended yet and the first draft is always just a matter of putting down the bare bones. Nevertheless, it's done. Now I can get back to the real world. What's that? A new Covid variant?
