Well got 10k words written but no way am I going to reach 50k by the 30th...good experience all in all. How did others get on?
http://sweetflag.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/nanowrimo-2007-update-10000-words/NaNoWriMo 2007 update - 10,000 wordsDay 18 of 30.
I haven't written anything now for 9 days & can safely say I'm out of the running to complete the 50k words by the end of the month.
It has been a good experience for my writing, it's stretched me in ways I may not have done without a push of a time scale & has given me a 10k word rough for a story which I can now add to in my own time.
Of course it's a shame that I couldn't keep pace with the 1500 words per day needed & I knew it would probably be too much for me at the start but I didn't let that stop me from trying. With 12 days left until the end of NaNoWrimo there's just not enough time to write 40k words.
Would I try again? Hmm maybe. If in a years time my typing is that much faster & I have the same time to spare then I would consider it again.
Here's an excerpt from Black Canvas:
[page 6-8/15]
Scarlett, London
It was early morning. Scarlett had had a busy night the night before. A long journey to Vienna & back to sort a problem there that was unfortunate. Too unwind she liked to run the morning after flying for such a distance. It cleared her mind and sometimes it felt like it washed away the previous events from her soul.
Scarlett knew she was different from other girls while still a teenager. She had now lived with her abilities for 10 years and in that 10 years she had found a number of different feats that she could achieve that no human known to history should be able to attempt let alone do. Flying was the first but in her âteens she could only levitate about 5 feet from the floor and something she kept as a party trick for her family.
That family were no more. Scarlett had survived them all but the circumstances surrounding their deaths were still very unclear. At the time Scarlett was little older than 14 and the family of four had been travelling back from a cruise holiday. The last destination before returning home had been Bermuda, a lovely island that the whole family had fallen in love with and had planned to return to for a long stay in the future. Upon departure from the Island and not more than an hour out at sea, the four of them, mother father and two daughters had been on deck taking in the view before making their way back to their cabin for the night. A man and woman had approached them from almost out of nowhere and began to make compliments of the two sisters. The woman had knelt on one knee to take a closer look at Scarlett while the man had carried on speaking to the mother and father.
Scarlett had felt uncomfortable at this strangers approach and backed a little behind her fathers side. At which the strange woman had tried to pull her back away from him in an aggressive way. From that point on Scarlett remembers very little, only pieces of this memory surface even now. She remembers her father telling the mother and girls to head back to the cabin and the sound of gun shots, many shots. Scarlett had closed her eyes and covered her ears at the sound. Screaming and shouting and more shots and when Scarlett had opened her eyes she was so high in the sky the cruise ship below her looked like the size of a car. With her ears still covered she began to scream as she hovered in mid air. Then everything went blank to her but upon waking found herself being collected from the sea by a rescue boat. She never saw her family alive again.
The official report on the murders was two assailants had planned to kidnap the family or at least the sisters from the cruise ship before leaving Bermuda. Their plan had gone astray and then attempted it while at sea. A waiting escape boat had been picked up and the crew arrested but the man and woman that had killed Scarlett's family had simply vanished from the cruise ship without a trace.
Scarlett had returned to the UK after a week back in Bermuda while the authorities from there and the UK had tried to work out what had happened and what to do with a teenage girl left totally alone by the killers.
Life was harder on Scarlett for the next few years. She developed more abilities that she hid from everyone, as she had believed that her family had died because they knew what she could do and blame herself for their deaths.
At 24 Scarlett was now a different commodity altogether. Self reliant, headstrong and always busy. She had friends but she kept most at a distance that felt comfortable. A serious relationship? Not to be considered in the life Scarlett knew.
Her morning would now be spent on her local run along the South Bank. It was a good run along the river Thames that allowed her time to sooth the mind from her work. Being a bounty hunter to rich, high profile clients had many perks but it was also tough for Scarlett to justify to herself on occasions. To keep herself sane doing the most mundane task helped.
After her run she would shower and then have a light breakfast before heading to meet up with a client where she would be paid in full. This will be the last job of the year, she thought to herself, then a trip to somewhere hot.
The weather was milder than normal for London at this time of year and it made for ideal running conditions. The route she took would allow her to pick up a paper and some milk, everything was quietly routine for Scarlett but as with anything in her life she looked to always balance out the large amounts of her time dealing with the bizarre with any ordinary times she could get.
At the newsstand a friendly voice call out to Scarlett, âHey beautiful, donât forget me!â
Scarlett slowed and looked up to realise she had run past her favourite stop on the way back to her flat, Georgeâs Kiosk. With a brief smile Scarlett walked over to the booth, where a bald bearded George sat. He waved her paper in a friendly way to her and asked, âYou have much on your mind, it is not a man I am hoping?!â
George always hit on her but his Greek accent always lifted her spirits in the early morning as he was always cheerful and always in his kiosk. As Scarlett neared the outstretched paper a sharp breeze caught one of the tabloid papers which opened and then blew off the kiosk counter. As it landed, unfolded Scarlett was caught by a headline,
Vienna: French diplomat in hiding, shocked to his death!