(Cool dude on board)Seven days left before the NaNoEdMo contest starts. I'd really like to participate but I'm still waiting on one document... a marriage record I requested from the State of Michigan in mid November. I was really hoping to have it before the start of the contest but it's looking pretty iffy. It's crucial to a main character in my story and could necessitate a major rewriting of a good portion of the novel. I'm debating about whether to go ahead with the editing process (in other sections of the novel) or wait for the document to begin. I haven't made up my mind yet.
In this past week I was able to find the documents I needed for another main character in the novel and what I discovered will definitely require rewriting their story line. I made a couple trips to my local library to access Ancestry.com, got the death certificate I ordered from Wayne County, and made a trip to the Library of Michigan in Lansing. I'm satisfied now that I have enough of the details of this character's death to acurately write about it. It was a busy research week. Because I spent so much time on reseach I wasn't able to do much reading. Hopefully I can find some time for that this next week.
Until this past week, I hadn't been to the Library of Michigan for research in several years. I'd forgotten what a wealth of information can be had at one's finger tips. I wasn't prepared to make use of all the resources there and I wish I had planned better. I will definitely put more planning in before my next trip.
I put together a timeline of sorts with the main characters' life events and some historical events as well. One of the things I'm hoping to accomplish with the rewrite is a tighter integration of life/historical events with setting descriptions to give a good flavor of the times. I would have liked to have had more time to research "the times" but I'm targeting March 1st to start the rewrite and want to stick with that. So I'll have to go with what I know so far.
I had fun with the camera yesterday. My husband and kids went snowboarding and I tagged along to take pictures. It was a lot of fun and I got a good batch of photos too! I don't like being out in the cold but it was worth it to see the smiles on everyone's faces. The snowboarding season is fast coming to an end so it may have been my last chance this season to get those outdoor action shots. I'm glad I took advantage of the opportunity. Taking action shots during the day (sometimes with strong sunlight) is much easier than taking those same action shots at night. And my results were much better too.
