Welcome to All Saints Day or, if you're into this sort of thing, the first day of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Today is the day thousands of writers will begin the task of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Some will succeed, some will fail. Hopefully, all will learn something from the experience. I suspect, typically, the lesson is 'yes, I can do this' or 'nope, not for me'.
Which is fine. Not everyone is cut out to write fast, dirty drafts. Hell, this year I have been one of them. The editor gets in the way, or the self-doubt, or whatever.
If you haven't tried NaNo, I recommend you give it a whirl - if for no other reason than to give writing editot-free a chance. I did it originally just to prove to myself I could write to deadline. Which has helped tremendously when I actually had deadlines and junk.
Last night, I finished reading the forgotten fantasy I started during NaNo 2013. 55K words worth. And you know what? It ain't half bad. If I remember right, the first time I tried NaNo (unofficially, of course) the book eventually turned into Wish In One Hand. I think Blink of an I was an unofficial NaNo novel, too. My one official NaNo novel that turned into a book is Fertile Ground. So, you see, NaNo novels can become real books down the road a piece.
Anyway, like I said, I finished read the fantasy last night, and I'm finding myself pretty jazzed about finishing the book. All sorts of ideas were floating in my head during the read and I think I can make this into a whole book. Whether that will take another 50K words remains to be seen. It is a fantasy after all.
I still don't have a title, but it's about paternal teenage twins Aryl and Lyra and their allies - their training to be mages and the interruption of their training to go fight the evils coming out of the mists before the mists fall entirely and evil covers the land. There's magic and monsters and love and death and all sorts of stuffs.
So, today it begins. I pick up where I left off, with the hero in a quandary and a decision to be made. In fact, the last words I wrote on that manuscript were 'What is Aryl's decision?' Apparently, I didn't know the answer then because I never got back to the manuscript, but I think I know the answer now and I will be forging ahead.
Keep your fingers crossed.
🤞
ReplyDeleteMy first NaNo novel (which I won--I've "won" every year") was SEASON OF THE WITCH. This year, I'm writing not only to NaNo deadline but publishing deadline. FIGHTING FOR ELENA is part of Susan Stoker's Operation Alpha world and my hero is a silver fox, which is new and different and will be fun.
I love NaNo. And I'm really hoping this year's will jump-start my competitive edge and creativity and get me back in the writing habit. I used to draft down and dirty all the time. Sadly, this year, I got nuthin' to show. I have ideas. I have snipeets. I have partial books I've been working on for almost 2 years. But nothing finished. So yeah, I need NaNo badly this year.
All the luck to you! I want to read your fantasy. I'll harrass you to write if you'll harrass me. Deal? I'm going to try to get at least some words in before I go run the dreaded errands. I need to hit Walmart before other people get their paychecks and swarm the place or I'll never get out of there....Oops. It's almost 10. Okay, errands first, words this afternoon. Then I won't have any excuse to stop, stutter, procrastinate.
Words! 1667 of them today. Or else!
Since I've spent most of the morning wiping out dust bunnies from under and behind the stove, I probably do need a poke in the ass. But I don't usually write in the mornings anyway. If I don't have at least 1667 words done by tomorrow morning, feel free to harass me mightily.
DeleteYay for Aryl and Lyra! I can't wait to read their adventures!
ReplyDeleteI'm *still* tweaking the dressmaking book, so definitely no NaNo for me. But I'll start the next one ASAP. (Still avoiding the other work I should be doing. Bad me.)
1667 is a lot of words, but I know you can do it. Poke, poke! ;-)