This month’s Nanowrimo is progressing nicely for the most part. I am working on this mystery novel that I have been working on to some degree for most of this year. But the end (or, at least, the end of the first draft) is in sight.

But, as I while my way through the novel’s third quarter, I find myself falling into the trap of my character doing a lot of thinking about things, rather than doing or saying them. I think I’ve found a solution to part of it, but there is a lot my main character has to figure out and it does seem rather dull (even to me, which can’t be good!).

I don’t want to start what will culminate in the novel’s climax too soon and I think that is part of the problem — when you know what is coming and you know that what is currently happening is not nearly so interesting as that.

Of course, the other part is that writing a mystery is a special kind of hell when it comes to incorporating the mystery elements — clues and alibis and suspicions. They all seem so obvious to me (which they would, since I’ve made up the whole thing, but…) that I can’t help but flinch sometimes.

Regardless. I only have about 20 000 words to go. I expect to finish on the 26th or 27th (fingers crossed).

What I’ve been watching (not counting repeats of Scrubs and MASH):

Master of None with Aziz Ansari (along with apparently almost everyone else): We watched the first 3 or 4 episodes Friday night and it is just as great as I had heard. A clever and engaging sitcom with a nice edge to it. Main character Dev is an actor who has mostly done commercials and just getting into film. He has a wide assortment of friends who populate the episodes with quirky situations that, ultimately, offer intelligent and funny commentary.

What I’ve been reading:

Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor: Well, I love the podcast, so it’s no surprise that I’m loving the novel, which is really more of the same (although, of course, slightly different, because it’s a novel and not a podcast…). I’m not sure that this would make a good introduction to Night Vale, but it is an excellent addition.

Unaccountable: Truth and Lies on Parliament Hill: This book by former Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page is his account of his time in the position and the conflict that he came into with the ruling Conservative Party who had appointed him. I’ve only just started this (it’s my book to read in the bath, as I’m reading the Kindle version of Welcome to Night Vale), but so far it is very interesting. He did any number of interviews when it came out, which I clearly found compelling.