NaNoWriMo 2023: Progress Report
Technically, it’s a red herring, in that no other story leads into this one and nothing of any significance is discussed.
However, the adventure is under way, even if the game (cricket or otherwise) is not yet afoot.
This opening is actually one I’ve been thinking about for months. Holmes is amusing himself by needling Watson who attempts to distract him by suggesting a visit to the nearby Lords Cricket Ground, a half hour walk from Baker Street.
Luckily, Mrs Hudson pokes her head in to announce the arrival of a visitor.
While the thought of Sherlock Holmes amusing himself at a cricket match is interesting in a sort of Johnson and Boswell way, we’re not really going to go there. We’ll leave that as an exercise for another day.
The next chapter is the one that really gets things going.
As for wordage count, oh boy. I could make all sorts of excuses — sick grandchildren, my volunteer work draining all my reserves — but the truth is that I haven’t yet gotten into the swing of things.
Like writing these updates, where I can just write and write.
A Sherlock Holmes mystery demands a certain amount of discipline. I have to work out what is happening, what information I can reveal — or not — and put it into some sort of Conan Doyle period style.
And, of course, look around for research — how far away is Lords from Baker Street, who did Grace play for, what happens to fresh corpses in the height of summer in the 1890s etc. etc. — and research is a comfortable rabbit hole to dive down in lieu of actually writing.
I haven’t as yet actually reached my daily target on any day, currently standing at well over two thousand words a day even without the difficult days I know are coming — my regular childcare and volunteer days, not to mention a three-day interstate trip for a family event — and a strict accounting will likely see me fall well short unless I develop some sort of superboost caffeine shot.
We’ll see.
