The Necklace

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  “SHE WAS one of those pretty, charming young ladies, born, as if through an error of destiny, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no hopes, no means of becoming known, appreciated, loved, and married by a man either rich or distinguished; and she allowed herself to marry a petty clerk in the office of the Board of Education. . . .  She had neither frocks nor jewels, nothing. And she loved only those things. She felt that she was made for them. She had such a desire to please, to be sought after, to be clever, and courted.” —THE NECKLACE Guy de Maupassant    France, 1884 (pic by Grok) Read this short story here:  https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-maupassant/short-story/the-necklace

NaNoWriMo report 2

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  • Current Word Count 5912
  • Words per Day to Finish on Time 1575
  • Total Words Remaining 44088
This is breaking me out of the academic mold.  I am so accustomed to writing academic papers that (in an overly simplistic way) merely address a topic and reflect in some manner on that which is reported.  Novel writing is something else!

My latest experience is thus: I have direction I would like to go, create the scene and draw out the action in my mind.  After pouring myself out, I have an entire paragraph!  Boo.  Now, I set it down, come back and look again at that paragraph, which has now become an outline in and of itself.  I am fleshing out and am causing to happen through characters and dialogue.  I've even seen characters leap onto the page I had not planned!

For example, I could say there was an assassination attempt on the King; or I could describe an afternoon on the playground where a group of children through their imagination make a play of the news regarding the King, as they try to understand it.  I liken this to when I was six or seven years old and the principle of our school came in and asked us, "what is 'Watergate?'"  Can you imagine how a child answers that question?

Right now, my biggest hurdle is making my main character suffer because when he has suffered, he must suffer some more.  And then some more. 

It does not make sense now, but it will.  Oh, it will.

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