Well, November has (clearly) come and gone and I am not finished with my novel, but am still writing about it and I will finish it ( Read more... )

Chapter Six: The Escape

Vasilisa stared at the smiling faces of the dried skulls on posts, each creating its own light from the two empty eye sockets. She had been walking for two days and she was tired and cold and hungry. Her hands were tense and cramping, so tightly did she hold her dollie between them. Though the night was raven black, the ( Read more... )

Clearly I'm behind. Life goes on ( Read more... )

Chapter 5: Growing Up

Nastusia shifted immediately into the role of caretaker for her family when her mother died. At the funeral, it was she who greeted guests and accepted condolences with a warm handshake while her father sat mute in the first pew and later, at the reception, in his armchair in the living room. She laid out practical clothes ( Read more... )

Well, the need to work has become both pressing and daunting. I would like to get a million words in today, but I'm not sure that's going to happen... Also, I'm finding that now, a third of the way though, my characters are deciding to switch stuff up on me more often. I'm not sure if I'm just getting to a place where I hadn't really thought things ( Read more... )

Mom's in town. Haven't been writing as much as I'd like. I'm not TOO behind, because I set myself up for having a few days this month when I wouldn't be writing, but I can tell that it's going to be a little harder to get into the swing of writing 2000 words per day at the beginning of the week ( Read more... )

My chapters seem to be getting longer and longer. I see this as a good sign, but wonder still wonder what 50,000 words really is in terms of the telling of this story. I feel incredibly productive today. Yesterday was not a productive day in terms of my Nano writing, but I had a very full day at work and that's not bad. Today I'm happy to say that ( Read more... )

Chapter 4: A Mother’s Death

Nastusia was eight years old when her mother died. She was still young enough to think that part of it must be her fault, but old enough to know that she was the only one that could continue to take care of the family when Natasha couldn’t get out of bed. They said the cancer had metastasized before they had even found ( Read more... )

Chapter 3: Coming Together

There was a groan.

Polina had paused dramatically in her telling of the familiar tale and to her surprise, she was right back where she had begun. The room was dingy and dust-covered. Particles who knows how old of all manner of things floated in the space around her, collecting in the shafts of light diluted by the ( Read more... )

Day One went so well. I was ahead. I felt confident. And then day two rolled around and that didn't work out quite as well. I only got 1000 words in! Which means all of my exceptional progress from day one was nullified and I'm back up to passable with my word-count. I'm easily distracted. By hunger. By television. By all of the million other ( Read more... )