NaNoWriMo 2012, Day 7

Wordcount:  Daily = 1742 , Total = 13,701

Percentage: 27.4% (117% of target) 11669

By crikey - I'm quarter of the way through! Either this is going to require a lot of editing, or it's gonna be longer than the 46k I was aiming for. Oh well, if I make it to 50k, I can always edit some out and it will make "winning" that much easier.

Today was mostly spent going back to rewrite stuff, and it's the first time that I've actually felt the drive to write - so much so that I've been thinking about going to bed for the last hour or so, but also think "just that wee bit more".

I am toying with several possible ideas now - been working the whole rivalry between Pakari and Tiriki into the plot again more fully - not sure what purpose it really serves, but I might be able to make something of it later. I also added in a passage that described Arthur's Pass Village. Had to use street view for that - since I've been to the place many times but if you asked me what the houses looked like - I couldn't tell you!

Also, getting the kea out of the village and into the more natural environment and describing that environment in more depth.

Here are some ideas of where the story might go shortly:
- Tiriki and Hiwa visit with Hiwa's parents, who are nesting again. They realise that Stephanie, the human biologist, is up there too, and inadvarently she finds the nest.
- Maxwell Sherborne arrives back on the scene and starts courting Stephanie in earnest.
- Tiriki meets up with his father and reveals the rather shocking fact that Hiwa's parents have had their eggs stolen.
- Hiwa vanishes.
- Distressed at the loss of his friend, Tiriki breaks into Maxwell Sherborne's accommodation and goes through his stuff.
- Tiriki gets caught in the act and put in a cage, wherein he is taken back to Max's mansion and put into a secret barn, where the man is breeding all manner of rare birds and selling them for vast amounts of money - which also involves smuggling them out of the country.

Or, in a complete aside:
- Tiriki's father is shot and/or his mother is killed by a stoat, leaving their chick - a fledgling with golden feathers, in Tiriki's rather dubious care.
- The golden chick reaches fledgling stage, is seen and immediately attracts the attention of the afore-mentioned Maxwell Sherborne. He decides that he must have the chick for his own.
- Tiriki gets caught up in it all.

Ultimately, I think the first idea is better, as the second involves a lot of grief and will stretch the plot out an overlong amount, and possibly not make it come together very coherently. But I think I might just make his little sister golden feathered. And somewhere along the way, a kea will be shot. Although at this rate, it might be Pakari - the bastard did just slam a rubbish bin lid down when Tiriki was inside it and he dragged a piece of wood over it, trapping him inside.

Thoughts - I probably need to give Raweke and Totoa more of a role, although do I really need to? Could they just remain as relatively interesting background characters/sidekicks?
-