So I'm now halfway through this years NaNoWriMo and have written 26,724 words. This puts me just about exactly on target in terms of word count, though I must question whether I have entirely lost the plot.

My original novel plan was for 21 chapters, I've gotten through the events of the first six so far, which has actually taken ten. The thing is I have the nagging feeling that all I've really done is introduce the characters - the real basis of the plot hasn't even got cooking yet! Admittedly the main character has became besotted with a Countess, had a fight, been involved in what Napoleon called 'the most terrible of all my battles' and what not but it doesn't feel like intrigue or plot just yet.

Raymond Chandler, one of the finest writers of the twentieth century, used to say "When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand" and I do think to some extent I've used a Napoleonic equivalent: When in doubt have a flamboyant cavalry charge. I feel sometimes like rendering battle scenes is cheap theatrics when perhaps it should be more character based: does the fact that I have included a 5,000 word account of my main characters at Borodino immediately limit my potential readership to young men who like military history? Someone like Dumas seemed to pull off writing swashbucklers which could still appeal to a wide audience but now things seem to be very easily pigeon-holed. Anyone writing Napoleonic fiction is assumed to be a Bernard Cornwell wannabe, which I'm really not. Then on the flip side cavalry charges and storming redoubts with sabres are cool and he is a soldier so what else would he get up too?

At any rate too much action or not I think it's a fun story so far and I'm really enjoying writing it, hopefully it will finish up at around 65,000 words so I can edit, redraft and submit to some publishers.