What I'm Writing

Hello, everyone! If you've looked at a calendar recently, you've no doubt noticed that it's November. And if you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know what that means for me: National Novel Writing Month.

Because I haven't given you a writing update in awhile, I'll start off by telling you a bit about this year's novel. It's a fantasy (what else?) about a girl named Audrey who goes to visit her uncle David as she does every summer. This year, however, she finds out that he's been keeping secrets from her: he's the guardian of a gateway into another world, the true heart of the earth. Here, the earth is flourishing, and everything related to it comes alive. This land is under the protection of Adaina, queen of the earth who rules over growth and new life, but is threatened by her former co-ruler Iresh, king of the earth, who rules over the other half of the earth's cycle, death. David steps in to help fight off the threat, knowing that if the heart of the earth is destroyed, it means dire consequences for his own world, and Audrey finds herself pulled in too.

This might sound like a really detailed idea, but I didn't start with this much. I started with "There's a girl who goes to visits her uncle, there's a gateway to another world in his garden; in the other world, stone and iron come to life, and everyone's fighting against some sort of dark king." I didn't even decide that this was the idea that I was going to write until October 31. As you can see, I'm "pantsing" it this year. (1)

Because of this, I've gotten off track several times in the last few weeks, and it's taken me awhile to really develop my idea and get the plot going. I'm still not entirely sure of my direction, but I've gained some momentum and I have a feeling that over this weekend and the last week and a half of NaNoWriMo, I'm going to be making a lot of progress and connections and overall making my novel into something halfway decent I can finish in December and edit at some later date.

Word-count wise, I'm about 5,000 words behind. This month has been incredibly busy. There have been things I just can't avoid (like school, homework, choir practices and dance class) and things I could avoid but really don't want to (like reading, sleeping, and playing the hunger games trailer over...and over...and over...) and all of that has caused me to get behind. However, I'm ready to get caught up and back into it. I've promised myself I can download a new Foster the People song if I'm on track by the end of this weekend, and some sort of reward if I complete NaNoWriMo for the third year in a row. Whether it will just be another winner's shirt, the "A Very She & Him Christmas" album or the new book in the Inheritance Cycle, (2) I'm not sure, but just knowing that there will be SOMETHING is enough to keep me motivated - plus the threat of never-ending shame if I didn't finish.

So that's my writing update for this week. Back to writing my novel...

~blackandwhitedreamer

Footnotes (3):

1. "Pantsing" - a NaNoWriMo term referring to jumping into a novel with little no plot and writing "by the seat of your pants"

2. It's not until I list the things I consider rewards that I realize what an Alternative Music Junkie/Bookworm I am.

3. Right now I'm reading The Ring of Solomon, the prequel to The Bartimaeus Trilogy. Hence the inclination towards footnotes.