NaNo Re-cap!
Posted by Elizabeth on 12-03-2009 at 7:49 am
National Novel Writing Month ended on Monday, and I did, in fact, win.
I won without realizing it at first, in fact, because I had been rounding down my word-count at the end of my files (because just rounding is dangerous and can lead to an overestimation of one's word-count). We went to a writing meeting (of sorts) at Country Kitchen on the twenty-ninth, and I finished up with about 5,000 words for the day. I thought I still had about 1,500 left to do the next day. Then I moved all the writing into yWriter, and discovered that I had rounded off about 2,000 words and was, in fact, already done.
So much for the word count. As for the story, the major plot wrapped up at about forty-thousand words. The last ten were the beginning of the sequel, which will only probably be about twenty-thousand all-told. The main story will likely be padded out during the editing process to fifty-thousand, but that would have taken more time than starting on the new plot, which was already in the back of my head for the characters.
So, I present the excerpt from my novel, The Kitchen Witch vs. the Lemon Pound Cake of Doom (and yes, this is supposed to be silly):
"Nooooo!" The dark-haired woman screeched and hurled the scrying crystal across the room. Fortunately it landed on one of the many cushions scattered around the room. If it had broken, she would have been even angrier, and not even the satisfying crash and crack that would have accompanied it would have helped. The Brownies and pixies and the sad bits of leftover ectoplasm scattered to the far edges of the dark room, sending the candle-flames flickering and hiding behind pillows and curtains as though they were some protection from her rage.
"How dare she! She's my link to The Boy!" Without a magic signature for her to follow, she would not be able to track down this girl. Without the girl, the boy whose scent she had gotten that night at the club may well be lost to her forever.
For a week now, she had been closing in on the girl, narrowing her location down to somewhere around downtown. But now, oh! How would she find her? How would she find him? She needed him, now that she knew he existed.
She started pacing in the candle-lit room. One of the sprites pinched another and a small fight started. The woman glared at them. "Ahem. I'm raging, here! Stop it!" They subsided again, but as she turned to start pacing again, she had a brilliant idea!
"You, all of you! Gather around!" She half-knelt to put herself closer to their eye-level. "Come along, I am not angry anymore. I have a job for you, and I think you will enjoy it." She could not have the spirits show her where the girl lived; physical existence meant little to them. They would lead her in circles quite nicely, but could not actually take her to the girl. No, something more subtle was needed.
Slowly the scared creatures crept out of hiding. They had almost forgotten what had sent them running in the first place. She would have to do something about that. She began to hum, spinning out a thread of power to pull them in and bind them. They would listen to her. They would remember what she told them.
"I need you to find the girl who has long blonde hair. She follows the old ways. She is in this area," she said, impressing the bounds of where she knew the girl to be living on the creatures. "She looks like this," she said, pressing a mental image of her onto them as well. "You will find her. She will know you are there, but she won't do anything about it. Torment her. Pressure her. Make her break her vow to do nothing. Once she is again working with the power, I will find her in the flesh and make her show me where he is." Several of the spirits grinned and snickered. They would do as she asked with little qualm.
She snapped her fingers, and the spirits disappeared. They would be off on their task and soon, soon, she would be able to find the boy of her dreams. She reclined on a deep red velvet upholstered chaise lounge and waited.
This will probably never be published. I thought about serializing it online, but I do not want to deal with some of the drama that would ensue.
The sequel, though, if I can find a way to make it make sense without the first part, may well be making an appearance. It isn't finished yet, but I intend to get it done this month. Watch this space for more information.
Writing
