NaNoWriMo 2004 Word Count, Day 13

Babe in the Woods, NaNoWriMo Word Count, Day 13: 10,874 (-10,797)

Roughly 50 double-spaced pages so far, surpassing the length of my old screenplay’s first draft, many moons ago! (Though that was cranked out over three days, so perhaps it’s not so impressive.) Still deep in the Word Debt hole, though, but the past couple of sessions were extremely productive as the plot is finally starting to come together in my head. I think I’m at the end of the first act, having introduced the main cast of characters, given most of them at least some background, and covered the basics of what happened in the immediate aftermath of the elections in 2004.

Open elections were suspended indefinitely and martial law was enforced.

In both territories, pockets of resistance existed, some larger than others, and it wasn’t until the terrorist attack on the state of Maryland, highlighted by the detonation of a dirty bomb in downtown Baltimore by Christian fundamentalists that it became clear the moral divide had become a gangrenous wound too large to ignore.

In February of 2009, the President signed off on the Population Redistribution Act, declaring an official end to the bitter Civil War and mandating the relocation of 65 million minorities, non-Christians, white liberals and registered homosexuals – those that hadn’t already deserted to Canada or Old Europe after the 2004 election, at least – to what the Republicans would come to refer to as Gomorrah, giving them the right to self-rule as long as they continued to pay their taxes and allowed a limited military presence outside of key cities. Islam and Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned and their followers deported.

I was stuck on Thursday night, not sure where the story was going, but Sou MacMillan’s random request to be a zombie actually handed me a pivotal character on a silver platter and helped a couple of gears to fall into place.

Still have no idea where it’ll all end up, but I at least know what happens next!

In other news, R.I.P. Big Baby Jesus!

Written by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is the Chief Content Officer for LibraryPass, and former publisher & marketing director for Writer’s Digest. Previously, he was also project lead for the Panorama Project; director, content strategy & audience development for Library Journal & School Library Journal; and founding director of programming & business development for the original Digital Book World.