I know I’m a day late here but I’ll be honest … I was actually working on my NaNoWriMo project last night so I didn’t get around to the blog. For those who don’t understand a word that I’m saying, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it’s where a whole slew of sleep-deprived, crazy authors attempt to write 50,000 words in thirty days.
Here’s the website because you really ought to check it out : NaNoWriMo.
This year is tricky for me because I am not only attempting NaNoWriMo, I am also finishing up Usurper. The rule is that I have to finish a scene in Usurper before I can work on the NaNo project. (Don’t tell my mother, she already thinks I’m too busy.)
So how does this work exactly? I mean, how can I write on two projects at the same time?
Well, Usurper is a clear Fantasy written in an established world – Trenna’s world. I’ve already written two books in that setting so I’m pretty grounded on the rules and what happens there. I don’t have to do so much world building and things like that.
Residual Haunting, which some of you might recognize, has been on the back burner for a long time now. I think I started outlining for that story back in 2009 or something. It may even have been my 2009 attempt at NaNoWriMo, now that I think about it.
But anyway, Residual Haunting is a near-future science fiction/horror thing. It’s completely different. I’ll admit I wasn’t sure if the stark differences would be a hindrance or a help here. I ended up having to do some housework in order to switch gears before I could sit down and start work on Residual.
It seems to be working quite well. I had a dismal word count of 1109 words for Day 1, but I got a clearer picture of the technology and a better understanding of the world.
That said, I have no idea who Cal is and he’s my main character. Hopefully by the end of the day today I’ll have a firmer grasp on him so that I can write more effectively.
In the spirit of NaNo, I’m going to open a special NaNo snippet page and post my (unedited) bits for each day. I don’t know why, but posting truly awful prose that hasn’t seen the right side of a red pen yet makes NaNo more fun for me. So beware if you click on that section of the site, the grammatical mistakes could be torture.
Also! Persona’s first draft is officially done. Next week I will post chapter 23 on Tuesday, chapter 24 on Wednesday, and the epilogue on Thursday, thus completing the serialization of the novel. I’m doing this because nobody wants to hit the climax and wait a week to read what’s happening next. (I know I certainly wouldn’t.)
Friday I’ll have a little party or something to celebrate surviving my first serialized novel experience. You’re all invited. I’ll have virtual cupcakes (chocolate, of course) and talk about editors, editors and more editors. Because editors are awesome and nobody in this business could survive without them.
Now excuse me … I’ve got a NaNo project I should be writing on.
AJMaguire 