Sunday, November 17, 2013

NaNoWriMo Saturday: November 2nd, 2013

So like many other book bloggers, I am participating in NaNoWriMo this year. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, in which writers from around the world attempt to write 50K words of a new novel in November. It's been around for quite awhile, and I've always been curious, but have never participated. I'm actually "rebelling" with NaNoWriMo a bit, in the fact that I am not writing a new novel this month-I'm using November and the energy behind NaNoWriMo to compel me to finish a first draft of my current work in progress. At the beginning of November, I had 40K words in this draft, and I don't think it will take 50K to finish-I don't really see the draft being any larger than 90K at MOST, and probably more around 80K. However, I've been working on this WIP since September and my goal was always to have a first draft done before the end of 2013.



If I finish the draft this month, I plan on putting it aside for awhile before revisions and starting a new story that's been jumping out at me for the rest of NaNo. So I do really want to get 50K this month, they just may not all be for the same novel. But it's such a high-energy month for writers I couldn't help but to sign up this year! So in the spirit of NaNo, I thought I'd do some NaNoWriMo Saturdays for us NaNo-ers out there. Partially to just sort of keep myself accountable in a public way, and also just to encourage anyone else doing NaNo! I haven't been doing Saturday Morning Cups lately because frankly, I just can't gather up the energy to be that open about my personal life right now. Nothing bad, though, in case you're wondering. Just a lot of soul-searching going on and I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about it yet. Instead, talking about writing is really fun for me!




THE WRITING



We're only a day into NaNo right now, and while I type this, I currently have about 8K words I somehow manage to write yesterday(don't ask me how). I don't expect that to happen any other day this month, but I'll take it for a start! And of course, already my plot has veered a little bit in the last 5K from where I thought it was going to go. I'm not much of an outliner, but I do have a vague idea of the story. In my head, I have the book I'm currently working on divided up into three acts. I know a vague idea of what will happen in each(like, a 2 to 3 sentence summary of each act. I do mean VAGUE). So while I'm writing, I know the general flow of the story and where I will eventually end up, but not the smaller pieces. Yesterday when I was writing, a new character I had NOT been planning on introducing appeared on the page. I'm rather glad, though, because at the moment, there are actually very few characters in my NaNo project, and I really needed more variety.



THE STORY



Uh, so I guess I haven't actually TOLD you anything about the story I'm writing, have I? I don't want to say too much, but I'll give you a few bullet points just so when I reference it later you'll know what the heck I'm talking about. I do have a short synopsis on my NaNo page, which is, by the way. Feel free to friend me if you're doing NaNo!



* The working title is DEATH'S DREAM KINGDOM. It's from T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men", and the entire book is inspired from that poem/sort of a re-imagining of it.

* It is definitely YA

* Male protagonist.

* It's also very much a sibling story, because they're my favorite. It's about three brothers, with the middle one being the main character. (Not to be confused with the Tale of the Three Brothers, of course).

* The setting is WWI England

* It has a Supernatural/horror element to it



THE NANO-ING



STATS



So I got a pretty good NaNo start, and have a little over 11K words for November, bringing my WIP to 51K. I definitely surprised myself yesterday, which is good, because there's at least a few days this month I know I'll be out of town and won't really be able to write, so get ahead early.



SOME NANO FUN



So, for some NaNo fun, I thought I'd ask a few questions and you can leave your answers in the comments if you're doing NaNoWriMo(or if you're not and just writing), and I'll answer mine here.



WHAT'S BEEN YOUR GO TO NANO SNACK?



Does coffee count as a snack? Lots of coffee lately. And yesterday I ate an LOT of reese's Peanut butter cups.



BIGGEST NANO INTERRUPTION?



I had Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door in the middle of a writing sprint. True story. Only time they've ever come by a place I live.



WRITING WITH OR WITHOUT MUSIC?



With! But only instrumental music. I play Explosions in the Sky all the time while writing.



BIGGEST UNEXPECTED TURN YOUR STORY TOOK WHILE WRITING?



My main character met and had an interesting conversation with a homeless man. Yeah, didn't see that one coming.



So, how's YOUR NaNo going if you're participating? Or if you're just a writer who's not doing NaNo, feel free to answer these too!



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