10th November

Ta-daaaaa. 50k has been reached! I've taken it nice and easy, with a few simple 2-3k days, and one day of writing nothing at all. Bwaha. I started to lose interest in my novel, added a couple of new characters, and BAM! It's all going well again.

I don't have much else to say, really. I'm feeling pretty chuffed, even despite how long it's taken me. XD I want to finish this novel now, damnit! :D

Any how.

50,000th word: Leo. (How boooooring. But fitting, no?)

Sentence: “Arabella...” Leo shook his head again and wiped his palms against his shirt.

Scene? Ah, here's a sneak peak! Warning: THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD.

Jemima nodded and reached out for Leo’s hand. “He was the one who wanted to talk to me,” she said. “But he left me with two other men. Gunner - and the... scientist.”
    

“Well, this Lemington is a scientist. He’s mad.”
    

“Doctor-”
   

“I’m sure it’s a long story, not worth delving into now.” Leo shook his head to clear the smoky whirls that were curling up from his cigarette. “The letter, though, was written by your father, Jemima. It’s clear that they are on familiar terms, although I’m not sure exactly what their relationship might be. There wasn’t the entire letter - and my memory is a little foggy.” He massaged his temples, and then looked up. His eyes were narrowed, and his jaw was tense again. “It was serious though,” he said determinedly. “That much was clear. It spoke about secrecy and subterfuge. I really...” He took another drag from his cigarette, and then clicked his fingers animatedly. “Yes! It said: The city will drown.” Suddenly his excitement was lost. He frowned again.
   

“Oh my god...” Arabella couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her fingers, holding onto the cigarette for dear life, began to tremble just at the prospects of what this idea suggested. “You mean... sabotage?”
    

“Pop’s going to try and destroy Glory?” Jemima couldn’t hold back her tears. “Why?” She flung herself onto Arabella, taking her by surprised, and buried her face in the older woman’s dress. Her tears were hot, even through the fabric, and made Arabella feel even less steady.
    

“Do you think it was literal, Leo? Oh, please...”
    

“I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair, and shook his head. “I don’t think there’s any way of telling. I don’t know what to do, where to go from here. Things are so different down here than they are back home. In London. We have police that don’t report everything on the evening news-”
    

“Things are different down here because they have to be.” Arabella stubbed her cigarette out against a burnt patch of the wood floor by her right knee. “We’re a nation made of working class and politicians. We have nothing in between. We never had to.”
    

“It’s a city of glass, Arabella,” Leo murmured. “How the hell are we going to survive down here?”

Words written today: 4,779

Word count: 50,131

3rd November

Paaahhh. I suck so badly. XD I updated my thread on Gaia yesterday, but was too tired to post here as well! It's funny really, I had a weird sudden attack of crazy illness. Like, I don't even know what it was. I had a nice warming bath before bed, thinking it'd relax me after all of the typing I've been doing -- and when I got out I felt kinda dehydrated. So, I got myself a glass of water, and then, almost immediately, like BAM. I lost my vision, felt extremely nauseou, couldn't walk properly or feel my feet or hands. I couldn't heart very well, and it was all very odd. Needless to say, throwing up wasn't fun. But, straight after that, I was fine. I felt a bit weak and shaky (still do, a tiny bit) but that was it. I really don't understand what happened!

In light of this, I think I won't try to put myself too hard with the writing. I'm pretty much on target to hit 50k on Saturday, which is the same time as last year. I think that's pretty damn awesome! Plus, there's no point rushing if I'm going to make myself ill again.

Anyway, the novel is going well. Although I have realised that Leo has a nasty knack of getting himself drugged and abused. It's the second time it's happened in 30,000 words! Yikes. Maybe I should keep an eye on him...

Arabella and Jemima have got a bit of a situation to get out of themselves. Yaaay!

Here's a little piece to be going on with, in all it's unedited glory!

“How am I supposed to look after her if she won’t even come out of the damn bathroom?” she asked. She rubbed her hands over her eyes, and stood there for a moment with her fingers pressed against the bridge of her nose. “What am I supposed to do?”

Leo gazed into her face, realising for the first time how young she actually looked. She had high cheekbones that accentuated the dark depths of her almond shaped eyes. The sadness in her face only served to demonstrate the severe lines of her chin, exaggerate the shiny quality of her eyes. He smiled sadly and shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he whispered. “I never got this far in the parenting book.”

Without thinking, he drew her towards his chest, like he used to do with Lorraine when she couldn’t cry any more. She didn’t resist, although she didn’t exactly seem happy at this contact. Yet, he drew her in, wrapped his arms around her waist and let her head fall onto his shoulder.

She was taller than Lorraine had been, thinner. When he held her it felt like he could, easily, hold her tightly without having to worry that she would break in half, right down the middle. There was a kind of wiry strength within her that he had not expected. It was comfortable, surprisingly so, and they stayed there for a few minutes. Leo breathed in the smell of her hair, a kind of warm cinnamon smell, and tried to think what it was that he could do to help her.

Words written yesterday: 7,237

Total word count last night (day 3): 27,364

2nd November

Another update - whut? Yes. That's right. I'm not dead. Although my fingers might disagree there, and my poor brain. It's been a long day of writing. I started writing after my uni work at around 2pm, and finished for the day about half an hour ago. How much did I accomplish? Quite a lot. XD

I got it into my head to see if I could hit 20k today, and with a lot of word wars, I did it! I'm very proud of myself, especially because it doesn't feel too much like I'm forcing it. Not like last year. I've enjoyed writing every bit of the novel so far, even if some bits have been tougher than other, and some bits sound like a three year old wrote them. The best part is that the characters are pretty much writing it themselves! My subconscious is coming up with all of these plot twists and turns, and I'm not yet running out of ideas, which is brilliant. As long as it keeps up like this, I'll write as much as possible. 50k in five days is possible so long as I'm enjoying myself like I am right now.

But before I go to bed, I have some stuff to do, so I can't spend too long talking about how awesome I am. :D Unfortunately, I have more reading to do. So now, I'm going to do it. However, here's a little excerpt from the crazy mass of words that poured forth today:

 Jemima started to sing. The verse of some song that Arabella hadn’t heard since her childhood filled the room, Jemima’s voice strangled and shaking. “Doo-doo-a-diddy. Doo-doo-”
   

 “Jemima. Mimi! What’s the matter?”
   

She wouldn’t stop singing. Arabella lowered her onto the floor, leaning her back against the wall of the room, and then taking a deep breath, she stepped into the parlor. The smell, at once, was frightening strong. It was a mix of perfume, strong and bitter, and something else. Something metallic. At first Arabella couldn’t see anything at all. The only lights in the room were the ones in the corner that flickered on and off. Shattered glass was everywhere; she could see it glinting even in the dim light.
    

She could just about make out the shapes of the two large armchairs that Vincent had procured from a colleague after he was deported, and the outline of the fireplace that was so similar to her own. And then she saw it. Deep inside her chest something snapped. A cold, icy dread filled her pores, and suddenly she felt as though she might faint.
    

In the middle of the room there was a wooden chair from the matching kitchen set. Jeanette — for presumably it was she — hadn’t made it out of the apartment. Holding her breath, Arabella took a step closer, and then she saw it. Against the dim backdrop of the delicately adorned parlour, the deep gash in the side of the woman’s neck appeared like a grotesque monster. Dark blood the colour of wine stained the material of her dress, soaking the front and the pleats of the skirts. Her head lolled sadly to one side, and it sickened Arabella to even look. Bile rose in her throat. She swallowed hard and backed out of the room, shaking.
    

Jemima was still sitting on the floor, her hands over her face, rocking back and forth. She continued to hum, but more quietly now. Every few seconds she clapped her fingers over her ears, and then moved them back to her eyes. Back and forth, back and forth.
   

“Mimi, honey…” Arabella could hardly speak. The lump in her throat was the size of a golf ball, felt like it was suffocating her, but anything was better than going back in that room. “Mimi, we need to go. Mimi? Mimi, come on honey.”
   

Eventually the young girl looked up. The shock on her face was reflected in Arabella’s eyes, and she sadly opened her mouth in an ‘o’ shape. Then she started to hum again. She got to her feet, grabbed hold of Arabella’s hand, and began to tug her back out of the apartment. Arabella grabbed the spare clothes that Jemima had dropped in her terror, and they stepped out into the hallway outside without saying another word to each other.
    

Arabella couldn’t explain it, but the horror of what she had seen had been more than just absorbed by the both of them. She felt like this monstronsity was sitting inside of her, and she was unable to tame it. One second she imagined simply running, screaming, crying — and the next she couldn’t imagine doing any of those things, all she could see was the blood, the glazed look of panic that had been ingrained into Jeanette’s dying face. Her slack jaw, her wide frightened eyes. Just one look at Jemima told her that she could feel the same monster clawing inside of her.
    

Once they were out on the sidewalk they stopped. Jemima dropped to her knees and vomited, wretching so hard that gave herself a slight nose bleed. Arabella picked her from the floor and wrapped her arms around her, unable to offer her any more comfort than this. Together they stood in silence for a long while, until the lights around them dimmed well into the evening, and they were left with nothing but a cold, pale glow.

Words written today: 12,012

Total word count: 20,124

1st November

And we're OFF!! Yeehaw! Already this year is going better than last year. So far I like my characters, my plot, and I'm having fun getting everything down onto the screen. Things aren't going as I planned, and I love it! So far today, Leo has tried to kill himself, failed, and ended up in the city of Glory. There he has tried to 'run away' from the hospital in which he's being kept, and been beaten to a pulp by a guy who is suspicious of his motives for being in Glory. XD Meanwhile, Jemima has been attacked by two thuggish gentlemen whom she has evaded and robbed of their gun.

Awesomesauce.

I also went to a write-in at the Norwich Millennium Library, which was good fun. It would have been better if I hadn't had to write on paper because my laptop decided to play silly buggers. However, I got a good thousand words written by hand, and won one of those awesome animal bracelets that springs back to shape whenever you take it off! I got one that's supposed to be a monkey in my survival pack at the weekend (doesn't look much like a monkey, but to hell with that!). Today, I got a purple kangaroo. One of the dares is, if you have trouble with your word count, to include the animal you have on your band. Well, we all know how much I like monkeys! (coughCHIZcough). So, we'll see how that goes!

Anyway, it's definitely time for bed. I have uni stuff to do tomorrow as well as writing. Ah, life is good.

Here's a little except:

“Previous occupation?”
    

Leo held his breath, counting to ten in his head. He had been in worse situations than this when Lorraine was alive, but none too recently. He didn’t know how to answer. What if this information was already something he had? Was it worth it? “Shop assistant,” he lied. It had to be for the best; at least until he knew exactly what was going on.
   

“Mhmm,” Hopkins said, raising his dark eyebrows. “Shop assistant?”
    

“Senior,” Leo corrected. “Senior shop assistant. I was almost the manager.”
    

“Uh-huh.” The doctor leaned over, his starched collar digging into the pink flesh of his neck. “Is that right?”
    

“Yes.” Leo gritted his teeth, knowing that it was probably obvious that he wasn’t being truthful. He hadn’t been in a situation where lying was necessary in a long time. Come to think of it, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had such a length conversation with anybody but himself. “You could ask anybody. Why’s it so important?”
   

“Because, Mr. Crane, we take our business very seriously here and we don’t want anybody to jeopardise that. Do you understand?”
    

“Jesus,” Leo muttered. What was this, the mafia? “Who exactly do you think I am?”
    

“The point is, Mr. Crane, this is exactly what I intend to find out.”
    

There was a dead silence. Leo could hear nothing but the steady hum of Doctor Hopkin’s breathing as he stood over him, watching as though he was affraid that Leo might rip himself free of his ties at any moment.
    

“Look,” said Leo eventually. “What has any of this got to do with anything? I’m confused, and I don’t know what you want with me. If you check your records, you’ll see that I wasn’t exactly in a good state of mind when I did what I did. I didn’t intend to end up here, for sure. I don’t even know where here is. I’d appreciate you keeping your end of the bargain.”
    

“Bargain?” Hopkins wrinkled his forehead in a pseudo-surprised manner. “I wasn’t aware that this was a negotiation Mr. Crane. Was it?”

Words written today: 8,110.

Total word count: 8,110.

Another update tomorrow. =D

~ Toodles!