Whether you're writing the first half of your epic fantasy about a war between elves and cyborg orc pirates from space or the first draft of your YA story of a girl and the ghost of Herman Melville getting to be BFFs, NaNoWriMo can serve as a scaffolding for (and a sort of enforcer of) your writing time. Granted, you shouldn't need the Internet to give you the kick in the proverbial buns, but if it works, it works.
So, participating Autoren: what are you writing?
Yay, NaNo! This year I'm actually working on finishing one novel up and then starting serious writing on a new one - they're the fourth and fifth books in a series I have going with Ellora's Cave. First book in the series was also a NaNo book, by the way, as were the first two novels I ever sold!
ReplyDeleteNaNoWriMo - it works!
I'm using NaNo to start my fifth novel, a thriller. No title yet, but I've got the basics figured out: who, what, where, when, how and why.
ReplyDeleteI'm taking a break from the novel I've been working on in order to write the kookiest idea I have. See if it will breathe new life into my project.
ReplyDeleteI'm using NaNo to do a ground up rewrite of a dreadfully messy draft. I've been putting it off for ages, but I think I know how to tackle it now, and NaNo should be enough motivation to just get it done.
ReplyDeleteI'm doing a gritty (I hope) urban literary piece around the question "Just how far will a small-time con man go when fate offers him a shot at his dream?" If I can pull it off, it'll be a poignant tragedy.
ReplyDeleteIt's about a small-time con man living in the cracks between gang culture and legitimate enterprise in modern-day South Bronx. He's made a name in the neighborhood as the guy people go to for luxury goods at mac-n-cheese prices, so long as they don't ask too much where he gets them.
But nobody really respects him. After all, everybody knows he's basically just a fence for a particular niche of stolen goods. And that galls him. The people around him who have respect are the gang lords, in their bling and Rolexes.
But he knows, being in the line of work he's in, that 20 bucks will get you an imitation Rolex that's good enough to fool most anybody, and that at least half the bangers are wearing fakes. So he gets it into his head that what he needs is a watch that's so high-class, so big-money, it'll put any Rolex to shame. A real one, too. No cheap-ass knock offs.
And being in the line of work he's in, he knows such things exist. Watches that price into mid six-figures.
This is his dream, shallow though it is. So he runs his cons, fences whatever he can, and socks away money against the day he can walk into that one particular watch shop in Manhattan and walk out with respect on his arm.
Along the way, he's going to get in trouble with the gangs and with the law. He'll get himself out of it, too, but at a cost he doesn't really appreciate. And then there's the girl. The public defender who gets him out of jail the first time. The one who might just show him there's a different way to live entirely.
If he's smart enough to realize it. Because when fate comes knocking and puts that watch within reach much sooner than he ever imagined, he's going to have to make a choice.
Just how far will a small-time con man go to realize his dream? Who will get hurt in the process? And what happens when he realizes, just a little too late, that it's not what he really wants anymore?
I've never done a novel like this before. Straight-up literary, for an adult audience. Usually I'm Mr. YA, but this story got in my head and there's only one way to get it out: NaNoWriMo!
I'm finally cracking that sci fi story that's been lurking in my subconscious for the last few years. I have no clue how it'll turn out since I'm primarily a fantasy writer, but we'll find out in November!
ReplyDeleteI'm writing an urban fantasy about a husband's effort to save his wife from the nation's most secured prison ever. Kinda like prison break, with magic and monsters.
ReplyDeleteA grisly story about a kidnapped vampire, leukemia, and high school friends with a very, very bad idea to use one to combat the other.
ReplyDeleteI'm writing my third novel, SARAH'S NIGHTMARE, which is thriller/horror. It'll involve missing children, paranormal abilities, and a government conspiracy.
ReplyDeleteI'm writing a YA novel about a girl who decides to ask her dysfunctional parents for a divorce, and all that unfolds from that point on.
ReplyDeleteI did my own NaNo in Oct. and should finish up this week, so I'll use Nov. for revising (after my crit group gives feedback). It's a YA sci-fi which is new for me but was a complete blast to write.
ReplyDeleteParticipating and working on an urban fantasy about a high school for monsters set in Transylvania/Romania.
ReplyDeleteThis will be my first NaNo. I'll be writing a sci-fi story I've been outlining for a few months now of the aftermath of the reception of a message from an alien life from thousands of lightyears away.
ReplyDeleteTiming has never seemed right. I've got a 3 chapter proposal into my agent, (the writing of which was sort of a mini-NaNo) and I don't want to 'jinx' it by actually writing more until we know if it'll work. I'm about 200 pages into another manuscript connected to 3 other books I've written, and don't want to abandon that.
ReplyDeleteI also tend to use writing as my excuse not to do anything else (come on, write or clean toilets? A no-brainer) so I don't feel that I need that kind of kick in the pants to write.
Terry
Terry's Place
Romance with a Twist--of Mystery
I have a title: "Cauterize: The Story of Zombie Millionaire." And that's it. Except that it's YA and it should definitely have time travel and lesbians in it. And some cauterizing or the title makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteIt's an epic fantasy about a war between elves and cyborg orc pirates from space. It should span three books and there's a movie deal in the works.
ReplyDeleteThis will be my very first Nano, and I'm totally scared. My story is about two boys from opposite backgrounds who go on separate heroic quests to save a kidnapped woman. Also there's a talking rooster, for levity.
ReplyDeleteMy NaNo this year will be about a man who finds and breaks into the Garden of Eden looking for fruit that will save his daughter's life. There will be demons and definitely alternate dimensions. Other than that, I know basically nothing about what is going to happen. I can't wait. I love NaNo!
ReplyDeleteI'm participating for my second year. Last year I did a sequel to a trilogy I've been working on. This year I'm doing a standalone about medieval Briton/Wales, two people within said setting, and said people's encounter with some Welsh faeries... It should be great fun! I've had this idea floating around my head for a few years and I've just now gotten a feesable plot to match it with!
ReplyDeleteThis is my third year.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin has long been wanting to write a story he's had in mind, but it's way too huge for any one amateur writer to accomplish. So we're both writing it. And yes, that means the book will end up being 100,000 words by the end of November (Lord willing).
Here's the log line:
An oddball engineer embarks on a quest to find a powerful ancient tool, but when he hears that the city in which his beloved lives is destroying itself, he must choose between obtaining the new technology, or rushing back to fix the old and save the city.
I'm using a combination between the snowflake method and the phase drafting method to outline beforehand.
If anyone wants to buddy me, my nano user name is LeoLewis.
Oh, and Jason Black, I need to talk to you.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw your comment and how long it was I thought "Geese. I'll have to skip over that one." But I didn't want to miss a comment so I read the first line anyway. And the second. And then the whole thing.
And now I want to read your entire novel. I LOVE your idea! Wish you luck during NaNoWriMo, and congratulations on managing to produce a convincing hook in a comment. :D
I love Nanowrimo because there is a charge and momentum surrounding it that I like to tap into. That and it's an 'legit' excuse to pop writing to #1 priority for a whole month.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow! My novel is First Person Female Protagonist Large-City Urban Fantasy based loosely on Little Red Riding Hood, Lovecraft, Arthurian mythology, and Colorado mining history. There's an evil squid-man cult, a not-so-innocent woman not-at-all fooled by a big bad wolf, and a healthy dose of paladin-esque chivalry in an extrapolated Victorian frontier city. :)
The best part has been doing 'research' and have devoured over *checks ereader* 40 books in the genre over the past year. I think I'm a little in love with urban fantasy; I've found some /amazing/ authors.
I'm using NaNo as an excuse to get into the writing game (but only for Nov). I need to finish a novel for my best friend who has been ill. She goes back in time and meets one of her favorite historical characters. But since it's in the middle of a war, some rather interesting escapades ensue. I need to hurry up and get it done so I can get it to her. nothing like a firm deadline to kick me in the pants.
ReplyDeleteHopefully completing the first draft of a YA werewolf romance novel.
ReplyDelete