Written by Anita Olsen Stoebakk
Things sometimes don’t go according to plan… Both my writing companion and I have been struggling immensely with our stories this week. Ingrid has been unwell so she has lost a lot of writing time, and because of this, she has also been struggling with motivation. She feels as if she is too far behind and has lost the enthusiasm for her project. So, she has decided to throw in the towel and I can completely understand as sometimes it is important to know when something is not worth the struggle. However, she will continue to join me during my writing workshops until the end of November.
Personally, I have not been able to write a whole lot either. I’ve written maybe 1000 words in one week (not counting this article of course), which is not a lot. I’ve been sick, swamped with work, and I just needed a break. I am sure I could have found some time and forced myself to write, but I chose to prioritise sleep and rest. It is important to know when to push yourself, but it is also equally important to know when to take care of yourself. If you want to know more about this subject you should definitely check out last weeks writing workshop video.
Last week I wrote about not giving up, and I still stand by my statement. Even though things have not panned out and gone according to plan, I am still excited about my writing project. I want to write just for the sake of writing, but I know I won’t be able to finish NaNoWriMo on time.
I am quite happy with the stuff I’ve written so far and I thought that I would share an excerpt from my story. In this excerpt, my lead character Valeth, a former circle mage from Ferelden, reminisces about her first memories from the Circle.
“It will only hurt a little bit, and then it will be over” I still remember those words. It is like they have been etched into my brain. I can’t remember my parents faces, nor the faces of the sisters who brought me to Kinloch Hold from the orphanage, but I do remember those words and the face of First Enchanter Irving as he smiled at me. I was five or six years old when my powers manifested and I was officially accepted into The Circle. I say five or six because no one really knew how old I was at the time. The Circle has this ritual they put you through once you have been initiated. They need to extract blood, which goes into a phylactery. They do it to all mages who join The Circle, so they can track down potential runaways. Everyone must go through it, but I was so little at the time, I did not understand why they wanted to cut me. I was crying and shivering. I was terrified, but the First Enchanter was patient and kind to me, and eventually I let him make a small cut on one of my fingers. I remember staring at the blood as it welled form the cut, gathered at the tip of my finger and lazily dripped into a tiny glass phial with a mix of horror and fascination. It was my first time seeing blood, but it would not be my last.” – Excerpt from NaNoWriMo project “Caged”, Written by Anita Olsen Stoebakk
The next writing workshop will be held on Tuesday November wq at 8.00 pm UTC+1. In that workshop we will be reading some more excerpts from my story, and talking about writing and storytelling some more.
How is your NaNo-novel going? Would you like to share an excerpt from your novel? Let us know in the comment section below!
