IWSG: Have you ever participated in the NaNoWriMo?
The following post was written for the IWSG monthly blogging event created by author Alex J Cavanaugh. Alex's awesome co-hosts for this month include Diedre Knight, Douglas Thomas Greening, Nick Wilford, and Diane Burton! Be sure to visit them.
I’m excited to write on this year’s story idea.
For my first attempt, several years back, I signed up and soon fizzled out. After that, I literally wrote first drafts (beginning, middle and end) for five novels in thirty days (separate years). With the exception of my first try, I reached an approximate 40,000 words for the others. However, I continued writing on them after November to get close to the 50,000 words and the end.
Continue reading if you want to see a hint of what I wrote in past years (not in order) OR SCROLL DOWN for a little sneak peek at my current idea.
- A Girl Named Lizzy was the first year. (Don’t remember the story.) I signed up and quickly stopped. Word count is still at 3987.
- No title. A middle grade story about a displaced young girl and her elderly great aunt. After losing her last parent, she comes to appreciate her aunt and family heritage even though it's weird. Just when she settles into a great life, her world is turned upside down again. Current word count is 22,094. This is a sweet story with a lot of bumps in the road for the characters. I like it and will work on it again.
- The Crags is about a woman, her mother-in-law and a trip together. Not sure if this is a comedy, a tragedy or both. 😂 Current word count is 40,679. This is last year’s attempt, and I’ve yet to expand it. I really like this one, too. Last year was kind of crappy for my family so I didn’t write on it after November, but I plan to finished it. Its ending is in place.
- Paper Nests (YA, maybe thriller) – a mother goes missing. Her teenaged daughter and younger son must return to live with their abusive (to her mom) father. Current word count is 50553. I’m not sure if I’ll finish this one. It might be too dark for me.
- The Broken Killer (YA, Thriller-ish) (This is definitely not the title I would use because it goes without saying that all killers are broken, right?) – A seventeen-year-old is told not to enter chat rooms, not to talk to people online unless she knows them, but she does just that. She puts her parents, a cousin and her own life in danger or has she? Current count is 59,864. I don’t like this one. I’ll let it chill for ten or a hundred years and look at it again.
- Bones – Only a working title, not the popular TV show. (YA mystery) Here’s yet another teen who is uprooted for the umpteenth time and moved to a rundown house in a rural area. This was the least of the nightmare she is about to live. Her mother is full of secrets and lies. She comes to realize that her life might be a lie, too, and she didn’t know her mother at all. Current word count is 55,795. I L💖VE this one.
My current project and possible titles are: The 313, Keeper of the House or something else.
Roni has been summoned to her grandparents’ farm to “help” her mother stop its sale, due to back taxes. No one knows why her crazy, harsh grandmother didn’t pay the taxes or where she hid her money. What they do know is that Veda can’t or won’t tell them because she’s in the last stages of Alzheimer’s, in a local nursing home. The only reason Roni is going at all is because Louise has mentioned that if the farm is sold, she’ll have to live with Roni and her daughter, Maxie. Everything changes when one stray dog plays with one human bone and the sale process must stop for an investigation. Roni’s successful and orderly life is turned inside out when she has to face the past.
The NaNoWriMo is a perfect time to pound out the first draft of a novel on your manual Underwood typewriter or pencil it on a yellow legal pad. No? You could also type it in a word document on your laptop as I am doing.
How about you? NaNoWriMo in November or another month?
~Teresa
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