A work in progress

As I’ve told you I’m working on a novel for a competition with deadline on the 16th of April. Since Friday I’ve actually written 20 000 words. Your normal average novel will normally be about the size 80 – 90 000 words so I don’t think I’ve done badly so far speed-wise. The only thing that’s stopped me from writing even more this weekend is pain. When I spend more than 5 – 6 hours by the computer at a time my neck stiffens, my shoulder starts aching and finally my back screams in pain at the same time as the hammers start doing their work inside my head. This will be the time when I get up from the computer cursing loudly because my body is working against me, but what can you do? I am hoping to do about 7 – 8000 words a day the next couple of days.

On Thursday my parents and an aunt&uncle are flying in from Norway. They’ll be staying till Monday when I’m flying back to Norway with them. I don’t suspect I’ll get much writing done while they’re here, there are so many things I want to show them and so many places I want to take them – and not forget, so many pints that need to be drunken!!!

I do run into some frustrations when I’m writing this Viking story of mine: I’m not a historian, neither am I very good at geography, especially not what the country looked like about 1000 years ago and what the different places were called back then. So I keep having to go online and try to find information, because I really want my story to be as historically correct as possible.

Some of the things I’ve been wondering about lately:

• What did the area around Steinkjer look like 1000 years ago? Would it be possible to live on a farm near the fjord but still have a forest very near?
• Would the name Ørlandet exist at that time, or is this a newer name? What else could it have been called, and did people live there back then?
• How long would it take to row a longship from Steinkjer to Ørlandet?
• Did they know how to count, and how far could they count? Would it be likely that a woman would be educated enough to count?
• Were there wild rabbits in Norway 1000 years ago? (Are there wild rabbits in Norway Today?)
• The trading place of Lade, how big was it really? Did people live there?
• Who was king in Tröndelag around the year 791?
• Could people from Tröndelag have participated in the attack on Lindisfarne in 793? If so, how long would it take them to get there?
• How do I properly describe a longhouse so that everyone understands what I’m talking about?
• Would the Vikings have ships were it would be possible to go below deck for shelter in stormy weather?
• What were their swords made from?
• If you set a slave free, how did you do it? Is it likely that you would for instance make him a rune of freedom? Write it on a piece of wood or something so that he could show if someone asked him?
• When did the first monasteries appear in Norway?
• When the Vikings attacked Lindisfarne, could there have been nuns at the monastery or were there only monks there?

Oh, well, these are just a few of the things I’m troubling with, it seems that I’m spending way to much time online doing research when I should’ve been writing. A friend advised me to just keep writing even when I come to things I need to research, just put a big X down so I’ll know where I need to go back and research – the only problem with that is that I’m curious. And once I start thinking about these things I find it hard to focus on other things.

And by the way, most of the things in my list above are things I still haven’t been able or have had the time to find out – so if any of you people reading this know anything about these things – please, save me the time and do let me know!!!