Picowrimo - Day 1

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

At twenty past midnight local time!

Greetings all. You know what to do. You know where to do it. Go! :)

Comments

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

My declared plan was to write 12000 words of the YA novel I was doing in June/July. That's 400 words per day, and the text stood at 23730 words at the start of the month.

So what was the first thing I did? Start off on something entirely unconnected, of course :) In the middle of last week I had a sudden urge to write a spin-off of a spin-off of the "Traveller" novel I did a few years back. It's the story of a minor character's part in that first spin-off story. It may work, or it may not. Somewhat to my surprise, I find that I actually clocked up 390 words of that side-project (henceforth known as "Eleanor") today.

Meanwhile I did manage 90 words of "Catherine" at lunch time, but not having counted up the other until just now, I sat down after dinner to try to reach my target for the day. It was hard at first - the story has reached a point where my outline plan is non-existent - but once I'd got a scene going it flowed fairly well, resulting in a further 700 words. Gosh!


Today's snippet, where Catherine has returned from a trip in which she's discovered some important things, and got home late:


She turned to her dad again. "I'm sorry I was late home without telling you, but I didn't know we were doing this today."
"That's okay, sweetie," he said. "Two men from the fleet called round and told us where you were. They told us all about the Commodore's Cadets and how much you learn there. It sounds like you have a lot of fun."
Catherine nodded wildly. She almost missed her dad's brief frown before he picked up his empty cup as if to drink.
"Is there more tea?" her dad asked.
"I'll make a fresh pot," her mum said, stood up and headed for the kitchen.
Dad leaned close to Catherine. "The fleet men asked a lot about you, and about your friends."
Catherine tried not to gulp. "I hope you told the truth," she said, voice cracking as her throat suddenly felt dry.
"I didn't lie." Dad tapped a finger on the table and pursed his lips. "I... may have left out some details." He took a deep breath. "I didn't mention Anna."



(Actually I wanted to quote the bit that follows but the background would need a lot of explaining)

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you're off to a very productive start! It sounds like Catherine's got herself into a very sticky situation.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your productivity. I like Catherine's Dad there.

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm not sure whether I'm getting Catherine's dad right over all. He's become a complex character - first as an authority figure then ousted by the new regime, descended into a slough of despond which Catherine shook him out of by apparently joining the dark side... he's now wondering whether she's really turned or is up to something. He definitely wants to believe the latter, even though it scares him.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

Tension is still taut as ever! Good luck with both projects!

[paranoidangel]

That's past your target words for the day! It is good when a scene just flows and you write lots of words.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

I love the way in a dystopian nightmare future they're still all having a pot of tea. Tres anglais :)

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

I'm rather partial to tea :)

Actually, the far-future-even-compared-to-this "Archivist" novel that this began as a prequel to... has people drinking tea. Probably not Earl Grey or English Breakfast, though. It's tea, Jim, but possibly not as we know it.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Muses are capricious creatures. *voice of experience speaking* But as long as they talk to you, nothing is lost.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Impressive target. Sounds like you are making good progress! :)

ooh, more of this story! :)

Poor Catherine and family.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm glad her father knows there's danger and acts accordingly; at least she's not alone.