Halfway at NaNoWriMo

With my sister from the Netherlands here for a 10-day visit, I have naturally focused on spending time with her as we don't get to see each other often enough. I have persisted with my efforts to write a draft for my first novel as part of National Novel Writing Month, after debating whether I should focus on working on the revising, rewriting and polishing of the drafts for two other (non-fiction) books.

But encouraged by Tim, who is also doing his first NaNoWriMo, and a friend and fellow writer also participating in her first NaNoWriMo I have decided to stick with the novel, as crazy and far-fetched as my plot seems.

As a longtime journalist and author of three non-fiction books I can feel myself slowly embracing the fun of fiction - if I want to suddenly have my protagonist female ultrarunner trip over a person, perhaps alive or maybe dead, who's lying in the middle of the road she is running on, I can make it happen.

And it's been a lot of fun to run twists and turns in the plot by my sister while she is here.

For now, this is the synopsis of my novel From my Mother:
"A female ultrarunner ponders the many questions she has about her beloved but mysterious grandmother as she starts her longest race yet where she finds answers in unexpected places."

And this is how the story begins:
"She retied her shoelaces. She always did as she waited for the start. She wanted to make sure. Tightened them, just a little, not too much. Retie the double knot. She never forgot about the double knot. Never had understood those who had to stop mid-race to waste time on laces that had rebelled and come undone. There was no time to come undone."