For those not in the know, National November Writing
Month sets writers the challenge of writing a book, or part of a book, and the
total wordcount to aim for within the month of November is 50,000 words. I had
done NaNo twice, but 2020 has been a doldrums year for my writing, with no wind
of creativity filling my sails at all. So I decided I would give NaNo a third
try and write the next Georgia Pattison Mystery, or, just over half of it.
I managed just over 60,000 words by 30th
November – about two-thirds of the novel. The theme of Who Wants To Live
Forever is knowing oneself, something Georgia has always struggled with.
And I am in good company with that theme, since it is, more or less, the theme
of most of Jane Austen’s novels.
Georgia’s life has changed since she decided to set a
date for her wedding to her beloved Ned, aka Sir Edward Broome, a man who can
trace his ancestry back to the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. And, for the
history buffs, the surname Broome has sometimes been taken by “wrong side of
the blanket” Plantagenets, who take their name from Planta Genista, the
common broome shrub. So does that mean Ned might have royal blood in his veins?
Like any bride, there are a few hiccups on the way to her
wedding day, but these are all to do with her choice of dress, their choice of
venue and, generally, Georgia’s mother having a meltdown when Georgia and Ned
decide to have a tiered chocolate cake. But, finally, our heroine is walking
down the aisle and things are set to go swimmingly. Of course they don’t. A complete
stranger objects to the marriage and he is later found dead. The real trouble
begins when Georgia finds out who the stranger is…
On the face of things, writing just under 2,000 words
every day in November does not sound particularly onerous, especially in the
middle of a pandemic when we are supposed to be stopping in and not being
sociable. But I think the Covid-19 lockdowns have had a real impact on all of
us, me included. That it affected me was a shock because I am, by nature, a
hermit and very anti-social at the best of times. So why did I feel so trapped?
I think it’s all to do with perception. My life didn’t
change at all, in reality. I still walked the dog early enough to avoid other
people and then hunkered down and wrote words. But the lack of being able to
jump on the bus to Whitby if I felt like it, was difficult to handle. I found
my inner sewing bee instead and my writing suffered.
NaNo was my way of making sure I could still “do it”:
making sure the creativity was still there, the spark, that what-if?
that seemed to have gone walkabout. The good news is that I can still “do it”.
And that has inspired the idea for a whole new series, which I want to start in
January. I just have to finish Who Wants To Live Forever first. Another 30,000
words should see it in the bag. There is even a faint chance I might have this
first draft done by Christmas. That would be a cracking present to myself.
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