We are nearing the end of Nanowrimo!  I clickety-clacked out 2,095 words today in somewhat less of a burst than yesterday.  I was feeling my way through a scene viewed through Lenn's eyes, a hard switch from Matsuko's viewpoint yesterday.

Not so much because they are radically different in viewpoint but because the technical details of presenting the information from one persons' viewpoint rather than another kept tangling me around the metaphorical ankles.  Still, it all worked out and I was able to cobble together a fairly hopeful chapter after the sale of the Shimoto family's household goods.  Here's a short excerpt:

The soup had long been consumed and their glasses empty when at last they stood up from the table.  Ichiro, uncharacteristically, gathered the dishes for washing.  He insisted that Mother and Father rest.  Uncle Akio helped by wiping their supply of dishes and stacking them in the cupboard.  Lenn put the remaining milk back in the icebox.  Next to the shed, the chicken coop was silent and the moon lit up the empty yard.  Through the backlit kitchen window, Lenn could see Uncle Akio’s animated face as he told some story or another.  Ichiro was laughing and, although he couldn’t see them, he heard Father’s low rumbling guffaw and Mother’s sweeter tinkle of amusement.

Lenn stood outside, letting the moment fill him, wash over him.  He felt a swelling pride in them, in all of them, for taking a day which had undoubtedly been one of the most difficult in each of their lives and ending it in such a way.  With a good meal.  With warm companionship.  With laughter.

So three more days to go and 4,145 words left.  That's a bit less than 1,400 per day.  Tomorrow's golf though and then we'll have company on Thursday and Friday, so it won't be a cake walk.  But one thing I've learned from this exercise (add it to yesterday's list) is that friends and family take me seriously when I say I'm going to disappear to write.  What a blessing it is to have others make room for my dreams.

 

Leave a Reply