Okay people, after careful consideration—and finally figuring out my password—I have decided to participate in NANOWRIMO this year!!
My only fear?
It starts in just three days…pressure.
It’s not that I am totally unprepared; I have my characters set, the plot summary, and even the book title. Still, something just feels different about this years preparation compared to last years.
Last year was the best time I’ve had doing NANOWRIMO so far. Okay, so it was only my second year… But I knew the characters like the backs of my hands, and I knew exactly how the story would end, and where it would leave my beloved characters. I am even planning a sequel for that book, but it may be in my best interest to give myself more than a month to write it. If I had not prepared myself well last year, I never would have made it. The book was long, and the most detailed thing I’ve ever tried writing. It came out well, but I know I could have done better had I had more time. I am hoping that the sequel will maybe be even longer, and there will certainly be lots more going on, with even more characters.
But anyway, I’m getting away from the point of this post: THIS years novel.
It was hard coming up with a simpler idea this year. I would—for the first time in my life—like to write a shorter book. My goal is 120 pages. I thought of several ideas for this years challenge. One was a mystery, since those are my most favorite types of books. (SHERLOCK HOLMES) eh-hem… It is still my goal to write a mystery book someday, and I am quite interested in attempting to write this somewhat haunting tale. The unexpected turns are always pleasing in books, which is why I love mysteries.…like Hound…creepy.
Then, I thought of how it would be interesting to write a love story. I thought of one, and even thought up all of the characters; however, it was lacking something…a full idea of what could happen. Again, I still would like to write it someday, but it needs more details.
There was one more book idea I had, which I had already started writing sometime ago. It was a book dating back to the times before my latest novel. It’s title is, The Witch of Brookshire. But still, the idea of a love story was very appealing to me, and since last years novel was a war story (and TWoB would be one as well), I’ve decided to go with a love story.
Finally, I decided on a story about a family who lives on a farm, which is beginning to fall apart. Love stories seem like they are hard. So many have been done, and all the good ones seem to be the same plots. They hate each other because they love each other, there’s a triangle involved, etc. My idea, I’m sure, has been done before, but as people say, “not with your characters!”
Keep writing!
25 Days and Counting!
Is anyone out there as excited as I am for NANOWRIMO to start? Well, if you are writing up ideas, re-writing up better ones, playing out scenes in your head as you’re trying to sleep, spending all your spare time writing down more ideas—alright I almost have my whole book written down—HUH!—then yeah, you’re about as excited…
I cannot help it—it just excites me! The thought of all that writing, who knows how many people across the world spending November writing down their own personal stories. But when I am through thinking of all that part, I think of my own story.
Last year was my first year participating. I reached my word-count goal, which was about 40,000—(I even went over it a bit). Anyway, just for fun, I tested out theWord-Count Goal Calculator to see what it said my word count could be…it said 171,360… Not really what I had in mind, but whatever. (Not that I wouldn’t love to write a novel with 171,360 words, but I just don’t see it working out very well.)
So anyway, if you are a novel-writing lover like myself, feel free to leave comments on your experiences! Do any of you know yet what your novel shall be about, or do to just wing it when November 1st hits?
(drawing above is of the main character for my novel: artwork by me)