A dancer entered, hands on hips, walking in the heel-toe style of Bharatanatyam. She came to the center of the stage, saluted the unseen audience with folded hands, and began with gestures to describe a river, flowing from above her right shoulder to below her left hip. She showed the swiftly-flowing current, then the open sky above. She gestured with both hands, smiling, to the sun, and bowed to it.Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo, and my protagonist's husband, who is dead in the first scene, but will appear in flashback, is named Aditya. Aditya is one of the names of the sun, so that seemed rather cool. So I decided to open with the dream, and then move forward - as it is, I was going to open with the alarm going off, and the protagonist opening her eyes and seeing that her husband is dead...
I spent three hours writing in the morning, and produced a little over 2,000 words - right on target. Unfortunately, although I know pretty much where I'm going, I have to think up some additional scenes in the middle, so it may not go as smoothly once I've finished the cremation. And the big cyclone scene at the end will be hard work, but that's many days away. :)
Speaking of 'seeing a dream,' I'm reading the New Yorker's Movie Issue. I saw this quote by film editor Walter Murch in an article by Don DeLillo:
One of the secret engines that allow cinema to work, and have the marvellous power over us that it does, is the fact that for thousands of years we have spent eight hours every night in a 'cinematic' dream-state, and so are familiar with this version of reality.
And by the way, if a Hindu character has to die in your novel, you could do worse than to consult this handy page on Hindu Death Rituals.
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