notes from NaNoLand

[jade_sabre]

            It is 21:26 Wednesday 5 November 2008, and I am having my first crisis of conscience over a character death!  Oh no!  I need to keep writing my NaNo, but there is absolutely no way to continue and avoid this character death.  Alas!  I should not have given the old man a name, much less have suggested that in this particular scene he is proudly reliving his glory days in escorting two lovely young ladies to the capital.  I feel as if the only way to make this worse would be to have him start telling the girls about how he used to take the one’s mother and aunt to balls just like this one, and—

            OH GOD NOLDY, I’M SO SORRY.

            I mean I named him “Noldy” even, which wasn’t very nice.  I mean, geeze, one indignity after another.

            Is there anyway to spare him?  Oh God, that makes Cindy look even more heartless, if she goes with NOLDY’S MURDERERS rather than “the people that killed that old man” or even “the people that killed the footman.”  And I don’t want Cindy to look heartless, and I’ve been struggling with that for twenty-five pages now, and oh Lord.

            Okay, if, say, we don’t kill him, but just knock him out early on, then we…convince him Cindy is dead and send him straight home (oh, Tom Jones doing Kiss, this is totally inappropriate music), and then he alerts all the servants, and…life goes on.  Alternatively, we use him to take Nell to the ball, and then send him home to tell everyone that Cindy is dead OH MY GOD WHY DO I DO THIS TO PEOPLE they’re all going to be so sad!  Why did I choose this plot?  This is AWFUL what was I THINKING oh my bajeezus.

            I mean I guess we could not slit his throat, and could just knock him out, but dangit all, he’s an old man, that’s not going to do him any good.  I mean, pretty much any violent activity is going to severely threaten his ability to continue living.  Throwing him from the carriage = broken bones, potentially serious ones—however, if he just gets thrown from the carriage, rather than (ooooooooooh if I kill the horses I could use that to tie it back with Nell’s dad’s death edit: I chose not to take this route because I just wanted to get the scene OVER with and it's pretty obviously already the worst night of her life) has his throat slit, that’s more accidental…and maybe faster?  I mean if he blacks out (act your age mama, not your shoe size!) (ah-hahaha speaking of last NaNo I just had this wonderful image of Amir dressed à la Tom Cruise in Risky Business, singing this song, ah-hahaha) before he dies, that’s not as bad, right?

            …it’s just easier, plot-wise, if he dies, because that’s one less person to convince (although honestly, why would Nell lie) but that whole lack-of-corpse thing always makes convincing people more difficult (like I, uh, know all that much about convincing people that other people are dead ARGH)…

            But I feel awful.

            Chocolate break!

 

            Things that are better than a chocolate break:  Host-mum-made-bread-pudding break and remembering HEY GUESS WHAT OBAMA IS THE FREAKING PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE FREAKING UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FUCK YEAH.

            Okay I know I had some kind of revelation about how Noldy was going to die and it was going to be okay, but I have forgotten it.  Bread pudding makes everything better, though, and I think I’ve separated myself enough from my story (ah-hahahaha Stranger than Fiction begone from my head s.t.p.) to continue with what has to happen.

 

22:14—note to self:  to avoid guilt, DON’T MENTION THE OLD MAN BY NAME OR THE ACTIONS HE WOULD TAKE IN THE FUTURE IF HE WAS GOING TO LIVE THAT LONG.

 

The moment of truth!

 

22:51  OKAY I DID IT.  SORRY NOLDY.  AT LEAST YOU DIED OFF-SCREEN, AND WE’LL NEVER SEE YOUR BODY?

 

Gosh I need to finish this scene, preferably before I go to bed, because I am not getting any writing done tomorrow.  Okay girl!  You can do this!

 

…Y HALLO THAR, DR. HORRIBLE REFERENCE.

 

Diction is important, because it’s the only way to distinguish between the different niveaus (ah-hahaha niveaus).  OKAY FIFTEEN MORE MINUTES KID.

 

They use the phrase “digging a crease” in French as well, to describe a frown.

 

Ideas for a future Little Mermaid retelling—the idea of dancing in cloth slippers, each time your foot hits the marble/wood floor you feel the impact like a knife.  Heh.

 

AH ONE MINUTE.

 

SWEET who kicked butt tonight, I did.  And now, exhausted, I bid you goodnight to the fading strains of “Boys of Summer,” and hope to see you in the morning.

 

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