3 down....

.....27 days to go. I fell slightly short of my personal goal of 2000 words today, but Tamara simply didn't want to say anymore.

I thought I'd start to introduce my characters for Moving Meditation, now I've got three of them fixed in my mind. I'm not sure how many other POV characters I will include but here's who I have so far:

Martha: a twenty year old college drop-out, busy penning her literary masterpiece over free refills of coffee at the shopping centre. She's full of teen-angst she's never quite grown out of, hates her contemporaries and is terrified of her Mum discovering she's dropped out of teacher training. She's aided and abetted in her deception by Leslie, the manager of the coffee shop she frequents. He has concerns over her doom-and-gloom attitude and the cuts he sees on her arms. He's the one who persuades her to find a hobby. She settles on the local tai chi group who have been giving a demonstration in the shopping centre.

Steve: a twenty-five year old, recently redundant pharmacologist. We first meet Steve in A&E, where he's having a wee chat with Dr Bailey about injuries received. From his wife when she discovered he'd not quite got round to telling her about the reduncancy for two months. Silly boy. He's stressed out, depressed and utterly miserable. He didn't want to lie to his wife, but she's pregnant and has suffered numerous miscarriages in the past. She's none too happy and he's going to have to get his act together if he stands any chance of repairing his broken marriage. Dr Bailey encourages him to manage his depression through attending tai chi.

Tamara: a sixty-three year old vegan, desperately trying to fill the void in her life left when her husband died ten years ago. Her four children despair at her "hippy-dippy-ditzy" lifestyle and she despairs at their endless consumerism and love of McDonald's. She also learns about the tai chi class whilst in the shopping centre.

Characters who will be making an appearance in some form or another include Peter, a wealthy elderly gentleman who appears to have everything going for him in life; Mary the plump and genial tai chi instructor; Gerry her gawky, gangly and morose husband; and Maddie. Maddie has no reason to feel depressed. No marriage break-ups, no miscarriages, no estrangements from family or friends. It's called clinical depression and she's drug resistant.

As you can probably tell, the theme of this book is depression and its many and varied causes. I'm hoping to inject the writing with my own brand of dark humour to stop all my readers from feeling depressed too. I hope the ending will be as happy as that of Agoraphobics Anonymous, for at least some of the characters.

More tomorrow, I hope.