Week Four and the End of National Novel Writing Month.



National Novel Writing Month

It’s the last day of November and therefore the last day of my unofficial National Novel Writing Month. At the start of the month I planned to add 50,000 words to a manuscript I had been working on. Well I got to the 50,000 words yesterday. Yay me. So that is two years in a row that I have written 50,000 words in November.

I had a little scare on Monday when I could not find chapters 77 and 78. After a frantic search through the novel’s folder and back-up folder, I realised that I had not written them yet. While searching I divided the chapter files into folders of ten to make it easier to see what files I had. I found that two chapters were missing from my hard drive, but fortunately were on the back-up memory stick.

During the month I completed the daily target of 1667 words on every day. I know my word tally will drop off from today, but I hope not to the extent it did last year. At least 500 words a day would be nice, that is until I start the humungous task of editing the manuscript.

The manuscript is currently 155,800 suspense, action and emotionally packed words. I still have ten to twenty thousand words to write of the novel before it reaches its natural conclusion.

Running Against Time

Readers of this blog would know that I spent a far bit of time this year critiquing/editing a non-fiction manuscript about a guy running up Mount Fuji. After editing it I know why marathon runners look so pained: it is because their sweaty shirts are rubbing their nipples raw and everyone around them is passing wind.

I very much enjoyed Chris Pavey’s inspiring story from McDonalds addict to marathon runner. His story is one of dedication and pain from so many injuries. He also raised a lot of money for charity and dedicated his run up Mt Fuji to the memory of Christina, his wife’s sister who tragically died in an accident.

I never thought I would find a book on running so engrossing. I don’t run myself. The last time I tried I could hardly walk for days. (I prefer the low impact of swimming).

So as Molly Meldrum used to say: do yourself a favour and check out Chris Pavey’s book on Amazon.  

New Article Submitted to Divine

I submitted a new article to Divine last week. It is about all the things people like to clutter up footpaths with: signs, dining tables and chairs, cars, overhanging gardens etc. These obstacles make the footpath hard to navigate for people with vision and mobility disabilities. Hopefully the article will be up in the next couple of weeks.  

 

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