It’s NaNo time again….
November is here and I’m writing like a mad thing again. It’s day nine today and the NaNoWriMo forums have slowly come back up to speed after being clogged with the surge of new sign ups and heavy load that always happens during the first week or so.
Now for my first Nano in 2005 I didn’t plan, I didn’t really think about it, I just made up the story as I went along through the month and that was The Portal Between. Then in 2006 I planned, mapped and made copious notes and I still completed the 50,000 words, but I hated the end product and it got absorbed partly into The Portal Sundered, but most of it will end up in the next Portal book - which has been started but not finished yet. Last year I went back to no planning or plotting and got about half way through a sci fi story by the time I’d done 50,000 words and then I just closed it and forgot about it.
This year I’ve had a rough idea, a rough time to set it in, a couple of starting characters and nothing more. On November 1st I opened a word document and started typing.
The grass was brilliant green and the daffodils nodded gently in the warm spring breeze as Peter walked home from church. His Mum and Grandmother strolled slowly behind him and he had plenty of time to explore the hedgerows and fences along the way.
“Peter!” his Mum called sharply from somewhere behind him. “Respect to the Flock!”
Hiding his face as he rolled his eyes, he braced himself and turned to the fence where the dark face of a ewe gazed at him. He made the appropriate short bow of the head and she lowered her head in reply, her dark brown eyes seeming to bore into him and he shivered.
A hand on his shoulder told him the adults had caught up. “Peter, you know they can see more than you think. You must be more careful.”
“I know Mum. I’m sorry.” Peter risked another glance into the pasture where the ewe was walking slowly across the grass alongside one of the robed Ovine Brethren. Something else caught his eye and he stopped to look but the older hand of his Grandmother hauled him away.
“Don’t even think of it young man.” She warned in a low hiss and he leaned into her as she led him away, the snagged fleece fluttering on the fence, just out of sight behind a bush.
Peter is now on the run in Salisbury with a new friend, Colette, and I’m not sure where they’re going next….
Wish me luck!
