Word count is still going well — and that’s all that counts right now. I’m probably talking too much so far, and I should probably have the team on the ground in Nairobi at this point, but I don’t. I’m still exploring team dynamics. But that’s second-guessing, which is not allowed during NaNoWriMo.

Interestingly enough, the novel is written in the third person, and while the main character will obviously share some things with me, he’s not me. But when I talk in general terms about the mission team, I keep slipping into the first person plural by mistake “Teddy told the team we would need to eat what was put before us by our hosts ….” I think I’ve caught myself and fixed it each time, but it’s an interesting slip, perhaps indicating how close I am to the story at this point. As things get more and more fictional, hopefully I’ll get past it.

Maybe I should have tried writing in first-person, but since I’m trying to fictionalize some things — and since the other characters are clearly fictional — I felt I needed the distance of writing about Jeff in the third person.

I’ll probably write some more tonight, but right now I’m going to take a break and try to put some things together for my worship service at layspeaking class tomorrow.