[NaNoWriMo] Day #25 (also, Thanksgiving Eve)

46,395. And I just wrote what I think is the best of all of it, culminating in the small, but personal verse one character wrote for another just before she marries the man she's been betrothed to since the age of seven:

No matter my wedded hoste,

I crave Gaverick's kisses the moste.

Mr. Torquay was sort of nebulous before this. I knew a few things about him. That he was murdered at 43 - although no one noticed due to the subterfuge of his wife and half-brother. That he had been having a long standing affair with Robin's (the main male character) aunt, the Lady Caroline (who apparently I had created as Catherine, but much preferred the sound of "Caro."). And that it wasn't until Anne (my main female character) stumbled upon his bones would he find justice.

So it took me 46,000 words to finally - finally - get to the murder part. But there were suddenly so many things I was finding out about Mr. Torquay (Gaverick). That he was the father of Lady Caroline's youngest son, that he was a fantastic storyteller, that he was essentially a kind man if somewhat emotionally distant from his wife like most of the people of his time. Most of all, I discovered that his most redeeming trait is his love for Lady Caroline. It was the only thing that saved him after the depredations of University and at heart the reason he died.

But how the hell - as I've been writing this thing in third person - was I going to get all this wealth of information across? I mean, until I started writing it (his voice is AWESOME, btw - very 18th century exposition), I didn't even care about Mr. Torquay except as a plot device that I couldn't quite fit into the narrative I was slowly cobbling together. But I want people (ok, probably no one is going to read this but me) to care about Mr. Torquay and want justice to be found for his sake.

So I stole the idea from ABC's The Forgotten of introducing the Jane/John Doe's voice into the story as the protagonists started to learn about them - explaining more fully what the hell was going on while all the protagonists had were pieces of someone's life without the benefit of extrapolation. I'm probably going to have to cut it down lots since Mr. Torquay loves to tell stories - even, I guess, from the grave. Although I'm not sure if he's talking from beyond or it's via journals/letters. But whatever I started last night at 3am (seriously woke up thinking about this), its really intense. I'd post some of it - but well, it's really - really - not for anything less than mature audiences and people who answer to the name "Mom."

So on this Thanksgiving Eve, I am quite pleased with myself. I have just over 3000 words to get done by next Monday and got invited today to Thanksgiving with one of my favorite people in the world ;) Thankfully, the florist around the corner is open tomorrow (I called). And I love my Mom and miss my Dad something fierce. But as I look back on the differences of this year from last - I am a thousand times happier even if I'm becoming a culinary expert with ramen varieties. Now if I can just buck the insomnia thing...