Nanowrimo 2014 – journal 1

Welcome to my first Nanowrimo blog post of the year. The point of Nanowrimo is to try to write a novel within 30 days. To officially win, one must write 50,000 words in that time period. In less than 3 days, I’m already at 33,000 words. I’m a bit of an overachiever that way.

If you’re in a large enough area however, the real fun of Nanowrimo is meeting other writers in local get togethers. You’ll meet people who write just for the fun of it, or for the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Some of the locals are aspiring authors, and a few have E-published multiple works. There’s at least one who has been professionally published, Vanessa Ricci-Thode, and I read her first book last year. If you’re the least bit interested in exploring or expanding your creative talents, these local write-ins and parties are a great to meet others with the same passion for creating fiction.

It’s also fun to hear about other people’s writing methods. Some make most of their plans over the course of October. Some (again like myself) make plans over the course of the year. And of course there are those who pants it. Pantsing a novel is attempting to write one with as little planning as possible, something I could never manage to do at all. Sure, my books usually fill themselves out while I write and my plans rarely pan out exactly as I picture them, but all the major scenes and the basic plot progression are complete in my head before I start.

Last year, the kickoff party happened on the evening of November 1^st. Some people (including myself) at the party had already started writing while others planned to start the moment the party ended. This year the party took place on Halloween, meaning that nobody had any words written yet (unless some took a quick head start to help them get in the mood, which is forgivable). Being a Halloween party, some of us showed up in costumes. This gave me the opportunity to dress up for Halloween for the first time in years and I just had to go as an X-Men character.

Cyclops is currently my favourite male X-Men character who is easy to find a costume for, so why not?

Just this evening, I hosted an unofficial write-in for the first time. Being there in a large group gathered to write is a special feeling … and it also reminded me that I’m terrible at writing with plenty of audible distractions. When I write at home I can pump out an average of 2000 words an hour with few enough distractions. At the write-in, I wrote around 400 in 2 hours. Even music distracts me, and having an odd (but enjoyably so) girl distracting everyone certainly doesn’t help.

As for the book I’m writing itself, it’s the 6^th book I’ve written for the series I’m working on (although in continuity it’s number 4). Today I finally wrote the scene that introduces a major player in the world I’m building – the world’s oldest and status-wise most powerful vampire. He’s not a major character in the book mind you, but his favourite son is. I thought it turned out pretty well. It’s tense where it needs to be, it shows the vampire’s basic character traits and it shows through the environmental descriptions the kind of riches he’s acquired over 3,000 years.

So until next time, happy writing for anyone who is also participating in Nanowrimo, or even if you’re writing outside of the annual event.