Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Weds ROW80, WIPpet and NaNo Updates: What could go wrong?

Morning. Cold. About 16 degrees out there, but, thankfully, no snow. Just clear and very cold.  Bright sunshine already. It just might be a good day for writing.

NaNoWriMo update. Incredibly, so far, so good. No one in the family knows I'm attempting to write 1,650 words a day . . . hehehe. The words seem to come along in several sessions a day, and if the writing slows, I read some research and jump to another section. One resource that keeps me get those words on paper early is 750words.com  This online journal that tracks the numbers of words you write. Since it's essentially free-writing, I don't get distracted by editing.

Row80 update.
--Keep writing 1,650 words a day on Rivers of Stone: Done!
--Blog x3 on writing, travel, ROW80 blogs: 2 posts done!
--Keeping current w/reading for ROW80 and Weds WIPpet: Done!
--Continue research for Rivers of Stone: A lot of ground this week, from studying maps of rapids on the Columbia River that are now underwater to Victorian hairstyles, to how the voyageurs cooked and ate while out on the river.  
--Decluttered e-mail (keeping it under 100) and critiqued one writer for NOVELS-L (part of the very helpful online Internet Writing Workshop).

Still to do: Need to send that query to Australian Times. I'm probably sitting on this because of editing BUT that's not going to happen this month.

WIPpet Wednesday:  For November 12, here are 12 paragraphs, fresh from NaNo drafts. Logline: Catriona, disguised as a boy and working as artist Paul Kane's assistant, finally arrives at Fort Vancouver, hoping to reunite with her husband. It's November 1846, and Cat finds Dougal working at a nearby trading post.  This may not mean the story is over, for Dougal is a changed man, and Cat has also changed.

Dougal was a bit formal, moving awkwardly as he started a fire to take the cold out of the room, put bread on the table, and prepared tea.
Cat sat on a willow bark chair and watched him. "So you're working here now?"
"Aye. 'Tis a good job. It kept me close to the fort while I waited for you." He didn't look at Cat.
"Enough," said Cat. "Come sit. We need to talk."
Dougal stumped over to the table and sat next to her. Finally, he raised his head and stared, his eyes narrowed and fierce. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."
"Tell me about your leg."
"There's nothing to tell. My feet froze up bad, that's all. They had to take some toes off an' a bit more. I was lucky to live through it. Losing my toes wasn't the worst of the trip from York Factory." His huge hands moved his tea cup. "Want some tea?"
Cat nodded.
"I couldn't find you there at York Factory. The only thing I could think to do was to come west again and hope you'd make it somehow to Fort Vancouver. I guess I thought I'd never see you again. Nothing helped. Not rum. Not the music. So I came west again." He shrugged and looked at his feet. "You know that part of the trail where you're walking through the snow, and you can't see, you can't feel anything, and you haven't eaten in a long while, and you know there's nothing at the end of the day?"
"Yes, we hit bad snow just past Jasper House. I remember it well."
"This screaming blizzard came in, and we had to hunker down in snow huts to keep warm. Three days we spent, with nothing to eat but our moccasins." Dougal shuddered. "And then the sun came out, and we went on. Met up with the main group, and that's all. I came here. Got the job at the store." He raised his head slowly. "It's hard for me to believe now you're sitting there, right there."


Paul Kane, "Beacon Rock, Columbia River"
from Lewis and Clark Today

OK time to get back to work on NaNoWriMo! A heartfelt thanks to ROW80 organizer Kait Nolan and sponsors. See what other ROW80 writers have done this week HERE

With more thanks to Kate Schwengel at WIPpet Weds. Check out those Weds snippets from works in progress HERE.


16 comments:

  1. Brrrr. That snippet made me colder than I already was!

    Congratulations on your ROW80 goal progress and your NaNoing!

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    1. Thank you for stopping by. I miss warmer weather, but most days are sunny here. Hope it's warmer where you are!

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  2. Aww... :-( I hope they can find their way back to each other metaphorically as well. I babysat for a woman whose husband was military and gone for huge chunks of time. When he got back after an 18 month stint, I did some extra babysitting so they could get to know each other again. So sad. :-(

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    1. Good for you re the babysitting. Right now I have two different endings -- and still can't decide if they get together!

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  3. It's 27 degrees here at the moment, with wind blowing. Brrr. I've never lost a digit to the cold, but I did frostbite my toes pretty bad when I was a kid. Boy did they hurt when they began to thaw!! So this excerpt really hit a nerve for me. I get the feeling Dougal may have moved on? Given the mood he seems to be in.

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    1. Well in one ending, he really does move on . . . maybe the reader should choose the ending? Thanks for the added image re thawing out. I'll probably use that somewhere!

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  4. It's getting colder here. We had a warm one yesterday, but the cold snap is settling in. Have a great week, Beth.

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    1. Thank you, Cindy. When the weather turned because of the Pacific Ocean storm, the forecasters were calling this the result of an Arctic bomb. Let's hope for warmer weather. At least this cold snap makes it easier to write about tromping around in the snow.

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  5. You did a great job showing the formality between them. It was a poignant scene

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  6. It's very apt. They might be together but they're not together. It's hard to have great amounts of separation in any relationship. I'm interested in seeing where this goes, and how it resolves. Definitely feel as though they're both holding back.

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    1. Thank you Adrian. Well, if I could decide . . . I guess they'll let me know in good time. Fiction's supposed to take place in a compressed time, yet to fit the historical times (and distance), these two need to be apart nearly two years. Yuck! I guess I'm a little more interested in how women survive these great gaps in a relationship . . . Thank you for visiting.

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  7. This is lovely and sad. I do hope they find their way back to each other emotionally. I think it can be hard to reunite when you haven't been sure if you'd see each other again yet held out that hope. Definitely leaves me wanting to see how things work out for them.

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  8. The tension and want here between the two of them is definitely palpable. And the wat he talks about losing a part of his anatomy with such dismissiveness! That rings true to the spirit of the times, for sure.

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  9. This is great Beth. I agree with Amy that it's sad. It's poignant too, that she's gone all that way to look for him and now she's found him they're so reserved with each other. Lovely excerpt. :)

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  10. The tension between these two is very obvious. Everything is stilted and the lack of eye contact between them says it all. Very well portrayed.

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