NaNoWriMo discussion and extract: Simon de la Mare

I'm making a final two day push towards 50 000 words. I may not make it but the panic and the need to get something written has helped me break out of my little cocoon of first person perspective that I've been building around myself. I've finally screwed up the courage to say sod it, let's give Erica a bit of a rest for the last couple of days and find out who these other characters are.

I've ended up writing about Simon de la Mare. He was originally called Simon Tavener but this name fits him better. It was on a webpage listing common names in the channel islands and there is the obvious connection to Walter de la Mare, whose poem The Listeners has resided firmly in my head since we learned to recite it at school a decade ago. And while I try not to feel old, I want to plough on and add that the name means 'pond' so there's the obligatory Doctor Who reference without me ever intending it to be. It also feels very suitable for a man who has spent all his life living by and more or less in the sea.

Anyway, this is what I've written about Simon in my fevered nanowrimo catch up tonight. I must warn you that it's rough, repetitive in a few places where I was looking for ways to express certain thoughts, typos probably abound and there aren't any paragraph breaks bar one near the top, so I'm sorry for any injuries to tired eyes that might cause.

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We at the very least I know Simon better and that's exactly the sort of help I need from my frantic scribblings at this moment.

25565 / 50000 words. 51% done!

Looking Forward to December with Books I Want to Read

I am looking forward to seeing November out and coming into December. I'm carrying on with this first disconnected and discombobulated draft of my novel until I reach 50 000 words but my realistic view of this is to aim to get there before the end of December. And even then I want to have better handle on plot matters and take a break from it before I tackle rewrites.

There are also other things (shock horror!) to do in December. I want, nay need, to direct the obsessive and motivated spirit I've felt during nano into finding myself a job. I want to throw myself into more research for my novel, research that I can again pick up and expand on during continuation, edits and rewrites next year. I want to tidy my room, hoover the stairs, blitz the bathroom and clean the kitchen before my mother comes up to stay at the weekend.

I also want to get myself back into reading for fun. Yes, the research I've had time for this month has been fun but I think most will understand that I mean specifically novels. The problem with me is that I'll want to read a dozen different novels at once and find it difficult to stick with the book I'm on and see them through to the end when I'm in a particularly down state of mind. It's understandable then that I've fallen out of reading during my uni struggles.

What I want to do for myself in December is to get myself reading and focus on finishing the book in a decent amount of time before I drift onto the next. I'm giving myself a five book limit for the list of books I want to read and get through them before I let my mind wander over to others.

Here's my list, with the three WWII related books first, though this is not necessarily the order I'll end up reading them:

- Spitfire Girl by Lily Baxter
- Muddy Boots and Silk Stockings by Julia Stoneham
- A Game with Sharpened Knives by Neil Belton
+ this one is about Schrodinger in Ireland during the war. You may just about be able to picture my excitement when I spotted this on the charity shop shelf!
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
+ I've listened to the abridged audiobook (on cassette tape, no less) countless times and stayed in Whitby a good deal of times too but I've never yet got myself round to reading the full book
- Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder