Nanowrimo: At the Starting Line Waiting for the Pistol

So what’s my Nanowrimo novel about?

Well, I think I’m still finding out at the moment! It hit me sometime ago that there was a story I had to write, with a fierce ache in my guts. It has its roots in my own life, but the ‘me’ in the story is not the ‘me’ that sits here writing this - she and I made different choices. And the ‘he’ in the story is not the actual ‘he’ either ... or any other actual 'he'. Both of these characters are beginning to take form as separate individuals and I’m still listening in my notebook to what they’re trying to tell me.

So yes, I'm a bit more organised than last year. I have at least a route map, though I do not know all, or even many, of the stopping points along the way. I have a beginning and some idea of how it might end. (But hey, in the final analysis, that's for my characters to decide, isn't it?) I have a setting - Malacca - a town I love very much.

So themes? What springs to mind … the difficulty of going back to a place when you’ve left it …the whole idea of trying to reach out and touch the past … change/progress versus standing still/stagnation … illiteracy vs. literacy … betrayal.

Will I make 50,000 words this month? Probably not. I have too much real life happening and more commitments than last year. But hey, I'll do my best.

And I'll be cheering on the crazy rest of you writing alongside ...