NaNoWriMo 2016 - November 9

So I had my first snag last night. I was all set to get some writing done, but life came in and smacked me around a bit. Between some bad news and all the craziness of the election I didn't want to do anything more than sit around and watch some mindless sitcom (Big Bang Theory if you must know). I'm a little worried only because my writing time is limited this week. Thursday and Friday are pretty much shot, and I doubt I will be able to write both days over the weekend. So I had to push past my typical goal of 2778 words a session. I managed 3709, not double, but a good boost. I've been over in my count this whole time and that is adding up. I'm at 20011 words so far. It is ahead of the average. That is where I want to be as we move closer to Thanksgiving - the time of no writing at all. :)

As for where I am in the story, well I just hit a new chapter where two characters play a bit of word fencing. I love writing conversation scenes (probably too much), and this one was a lot of fun. The time just flew by as I had each of these characters spar, giving hints as to their goals and how it will impact the protagonists and antagonists. Both of these characters feel they are puppet masters of sorts, but that is for the reader to decide when the story is done.

That section made me realize that one of the themes of this novel is going to be faith versus cynicism.  I never really thought about it in those terms, but that is one of the cruxes of conflict in the story. My protagonists are acolytes to The Great Goddess. They're actions are motivated by their belief in the path the Goddess sets before them. The antagonists are motivated by greed, fear and a world view that doesn't allow for faith in anyone but themselves (and sometimes not even that). I think that that time spent really fleshing out there backstories and perspectives of these six character will keep them from being one dimensional. I think the reader will really understand where they are coming from, and even sympathize with the antagonists on some level. When these two meet it will be a clash not only of arms, but also of ideals. And since I'm writing it, neither one will escape unscathed.

I don't think this is the only theme in the story, but it was made very clear in the dialogue scene I wrote tonight. In On Writing Stephen King feels that themes aren't something a writer should focus on in the first draft. They should be worked in during the later drafts, to give extra texture and depth to the novel. But identifying them early on it is always a good thing.

Stats for tonight:

Page Start: 103

Page End: 113

Word Count Start: 43934

Word Count End: 47643

Music:

• Gods of Egypt – Marco Beltrami
• The Monkey King – Christopher Young