Nano continued

While my word count is certainly coming along nicely I have found myself struggling to get through this story. July (Julnowrimo) was so much easier! I blame the fact that I'm just that much more interested in the world of The Obsidian Shifters. By comparison Temerity seems like a rather drab world (and the characters aren't as fleshed out which only adds to the difficulty in writing about their adventures). But all that is perfectly acceptable because this is Nanowrimo – I'm not aiming to write the best novel ever, I'm just trying to get this story out of my head (to clear the way for the editing process for Obsidian Shifters) and have fun in the process.

I wish November was in September. My social life here in South Africa has gone in overdrive ever since Nano started – I've been to the kick-off party, two write-ins (so far) and more is on the way. It's sad to realise that now when I'm finally making friends I'll leave soon. Next weekend? Saturday write-in with the same bunch of wonderful people I've spent last weekend with and on Sunday it's time for the half-way party (together with the wrimos (Wrimo (n): A person participating in Nanowrimo) of Pretoria – we'll be meeting in a Mugg & Bean in Midrand). If it's good to be around people (roughly) my age ... it's even better to be around other writers. In fact, it's amazing. Write-ins work better than I had expected, too. Yes, you 'waste' quite a bit of time just chatting away and socialising... but even so both Saturday and Sunday have been days with the highest word count since starting Nano (almost 4000 words on those days). Word wars are partially to blame (Try to write as many words as possible in 15 minutes time! It's like a race (with the only prize being the words you write, so everyone wins!). Michelle (aka 'WinterWhite') has been amazing – because I don't have transport she agreed to take me to the write-ins! I'm so happy I don't have to miss all the meetings. Writing is a lot of fun as it is, but having the actual – real life – support to keep on going even when it's starting to get tough has added a whole new dimension to Nano.

So to share some more pictures:

Sunday group


Writer's fuel! (Halloumi + sweet red pepper wrap)


Saturday

To summarise some of the things my main character had to go through, so far:
* Buried a relative
* Was drugged and semi-abducted
* Joined a rebel force
* Saw a man die in front of her eyes
* Tried and failed to convince a friend-possibly-turning-lover to stay with her
*Had a very narrow escape and had to resort to ... drastic measures to dissuade a member of the religious order of the Idaites to follow her.
* Came very, very close to falling into a stream of human waste.
* Gave away food tickets to a bunch of pre-teens that mugged her party at the market
* Insulted a man in front of his mother's eyes – without realising the woman was his mother (and her friend)
* Found an excuse to leave a drunk guy and his son behind with a crazy barman
* Had to transcribe an old map (first from the Jirandean script to the New Idaite form of writing, then try some homophones to get the real message)
* Lost two beautiful and perfectly good Fire Prints in the process of stealing boring volumes of Idaite history and plans
* Contact another nation's leader (ok, her superiors did that, but still) to ask for some help in their fight against the Idaites
* Deal with declining numbers of their Freedom Army and try to fix this

Some random observations I've noticed about my stories:
* Somehow my characters like to eat, a lot. And I enjoy writing about what they're having. In less than 25k words I've managed to mention porridge at least three times, soup or stew at least twice and... Did I mention my rebels have their home in a basement under a bakery?!
* Dye makers. If I need a random profession for someone, they turn out to be a dye maker. I have a family of them in Obsidian Shifters and now my main character's grandma was one, too.
* I like names starting with the letter T. I actually used the name 'Tera' in both Obsidian Shifters as well as Temerity. I had to rename Temerity's Tera to Denla (because I also have a Tesza and Tobi – too many two-syllable T-names, oops!)
* From my writing you can't tell I'm interested in languages. Just kidding, I've mentioned 'adenoidal' voices, have a character with a strong accent + 'strange' intonation, another character that sounds a bit off because of 'long disuse of the language that was once so familiar to her' (she left the country as a child, apparently – so she sounds outdated and a bit too formal). Oh, yes and I based the test to join the rebel force on useless language skills. That's just silly. Most 'See I'm a language student!!!"-thing I did though? Make a list of my character's names, country names etc. In IPA. (Because I might forget that Jirande is /dʒi:'rɑndə/ or Niroh /'ni:ro/ Idaie and Idaite are /i:'dajə/ and /i:də'ait/)
(And that's ignoring the fact that writers usually kind of like languages. It's your main tool, after all.)

School and other things
I'm going to Japari on Mondays and Thursdays now (to evade the long wait after school on Wednesday when my cousin plays his cricket matches – they last forever!). This also gives me some time on Wednesdays to work on another project I've started... (Lots of projects going on at the moment.)
This week I just try and keep the grade sevens quiet during exams.

I also finally managed to get my stamp (which turned out to be a sticker, oh well. How disappointing.) in my passport at Home Affairs. Another trip on Wednesday fixed the problem – I got lucky and arrived just as they were letting the people coming for collection inside. They then took our receipts (scary! Because that meant I had to stay there until... well, whenever they would decide to return my receipt or give me my sticker.). I got a fright when the security guard started to hand out receipts and called 'my name'. It turned out to be someone else (a guy, too) with a name like 'Charidza' ... Well, he had to go back home and wait another week or so because his application was still pending. Mine, however, was ready and after another hour or so I finally got my extended visitor's permit! The 'all clear'-sign. I can go home on December 13th without any problems. I'm looking forward to it.