How not to start NaNoWriMo...

My NaNoWriMo warm up - writing 750 words every day throughout October - was a success, and as a result the website rewarded me with this very natty turquoise horse badge for keeping going through the month. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is a great site to motivate you to write.

So what have I been writing? Well I sat down to start my story this morning and realised I couldn't find any of the notes I'd made. I'd collected information from Richard Munslow's family tree, about the practice of sin eating, a rough plot outline, the inscriptions on the grave at Ratlinghope, and various bits and pieces about Victorian life, and I couldn't find any of it.

I tried to read the inscriptions again on pictures on the internet, but they're just not good enough quality to be able to read anything. I did take pictures of the grave when I visited it, but I can't find the lead to get them off my camera and on to the computer.

I did find the family tree again, which I'd printed out, but now I'm confused as to whether a young Richard Munslow is the sin eater's son or nephew. If he's the son he must be a twin with Elizabeth, but she doesn't appear on the census when he does, and if he's a nephew then I've managed to lose one of the sin eater's seven children.

After all of these problems I did manage to get down to writing a few scenes where I didn't need to know all of the missing details, and I'm still hoping to have 5,000 words written by the end of the day (I've got 3,000 at the moment). Hopefully my notes will turn up on a memory stick or my PC...