Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November

Happy Guy Fawkes Night for all my UK readers! If you’re going to firework displays and bonfires tonight, remember to wrap up warm and stay safe! Eat a toffee apple for me!

(For non-UK readers, Guy Fawkes Night is the celebration of the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Guy Fawkes planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament by stacking barrels of gunpowder in the cellars and tunnels below, but was caught before he could do the dead. We now blow things up in celebration of him not blowing anything up… *pause* We’re odd like that.)

I am spending Guy Fawkes Night at a write-in (and busily avoiding the whole Oxford Street area of London as Robbie Williams is switching on the Christmas lights and I have better things to do than be crushed by 30,000 squealing fangirls).

In other news, we are a SIXTH of the way through November! (Scared?)

So, how’s the novel going?

That’s a horrible question, isn’t it? How’s the novel going… badly, if you’re asking me! I have whole sections that I’m wincing as I write because I’m just pushing for words and I know that it’s a horrible scene that has no right to be there, but it adds 500 words so it’s staying. The whole first 2,000 words will be scrapped and re-written when it comes to editing. On the other hand, I’m neatly tying up various parts of my vagueish plot ideas and I’ve just jumped ahead five days in the story which means, FLASHBACKS! We love flashbacks because they’re a great thing to throw in when you’re running up against a brick wall.

My friend pestered me the other week to have a “starring role” in my novel. I said he could have a cameo, take it or leave it. He accepted. We had this text conversation on Saturday:

Friend:      “So tell me more about my character. Does he die?”

Me:              “Yup! He’s been living in a dumpster for a week when we meet him, thinks he’s a spy for MI6, and gets killed by a flying shovel.”

Friend:      “Wow. I don’t know how to react to that.”

I laughed a bit too much at this point. That whole scene is going to provide me with a good couple of thousand words, if not more, AND the character brings an important piece of information to other characters attentions. So it’s not an entirely pointless scene! Yay!

Let’s ask a nicer question:

How’s the word count?

I hope that’s a nicer question. By midnight tonight, you should be on 8,335 words. Don’t worry if you’re not, it’s only November 5^th, there’s PLENTY of time to catch up! Personally, I am doing very well! (It’s my blog, I can brag if I want to.) I’m aiming for 100,000 words this year so I need to be on 16,670 by midnight. I passed 17,000 last night so I’m a day ahead! Fantastic! It’s always nice to have a buffer of some description. It helped that I spent the weekend doing very little, other than writing and pretending to write (procrastination is thy middle name).

If you’re struggling a bit with word count, just keep going. Write whenever you have a spare 10 minutes, join in some word wars on the forums, or follow the official NaNo Sprints Twitter account. Trying putting on a song and writing for the length of that song, or hold off checking Facebook until you’ve reached a certain word count. You’ll be surprised at how quickly the words build up!

No matter where you are right now, you’re doing fantastic. Keep writing!

Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason, and plot.
There is no reason why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.