Writing Blog

20230930 NaNoWriMo 2023 Preamble

September 30, 2023, 2:30pm

So, we are now a month or so out from National Novel Writing Month. This will be my fifth attempt, and my goal is a rather modest 80k words. I say "attempt" but I won the past 4 times. Truth be told, being a pantser, I find it surprisingly easy... and now I am unemployed and homeless and virtually live in the library, let's see if I can get it done in as few days as possible. It might also be a good way to not think about "her"... and, no, I am not over her yet.

Why am I obsessed? It's because I am so damn lonely. There - explanation.

So, my NaNoWriMo story. The idea came to me some time ago. In my last university degree (Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Creative Writing) we had to write a scene of two people meeting, then a later scene of one helping the other.

Well, I did it (of course), and the characters stuck with me.

A girl is named Raven. The boy is a classmate of hers. They are in the final year of high school (Australia), so are 17, 18 years old. They do not end up together. He gets a girlfriend. There is pagan magic involved (I have so many pages of notes on ancient Celtic magic practices that I could write a decent length book on the subject), another class-mate becoming involved with fire, deaths and a complex ritual involving the goddess Brigid to end it all. The minutiae is yet to be worked out, of course (I am a pantser!), and the actual ending (who dies?!) is up in the air, but I can go into the story come November 1 after another month of stewing on it (provided I finish this current novel) full of enthusiasm and ready & rarin' to go.

Or I'll spend four days writing like a demon and then panic will set in...

Meanwhile, I am open to NaNo buddies on the NaNo site, and am mentoring here on WdC, all to do with this weird month.