This blog was written the night before I started the 2018 NaNoWriMo challenge. The month of November was spent typing out the 50,00 word of what became Fortune’s Revenge. It waits on a flash drive to be edited.
The Eve Before NaNoWriMo
The last of the leaves are falling from the trees. There is a crispness in the air. The smell of decaying foliage gives off a familiar sweetness. I’ve scraped frost from my car windshield several times this past week.
Jack-o-lanterns stare at me from front porches as I drive down the streets of my town. Trick-or-treaters will walk the streets in full costume tonight. All of this means Nanowrimo starts tomorrow.
I’m excited. So, how about you? For the uninitiated, this event is a yearly tradition among a crazy group of writers who attempt to compose a fifty-thousand-word novel in a month. These works of fiction won’t be perfect by any stretch of the imagination. A lot of editing will be required after the project is complete.
Thus, I have found myself participating in Nanowrimo for the past four years. For the first two years, I spent my every spare second of the month of November pounding away at the keyboard alone. I didn’t even bother to download my daily wordcount into the tracker. The past two years I joined some folks at a local library. I enjoyed the vibe I got writing in a group.
I heard they won’t be doing it again this year. It looks like I’m on my own.
Last year as a bonus, I found a group of writers online. It was a supportive experience. which turned into Every Damn Day Writers. We’ve continues to encourage one another with daily Facebook posts. I will lean heavily on them this year.
Why I participate In NaNoWriMo
What I like about Nanowrimo is the creative energy that emerges with so many people participating in the same writing activity at the same point in time across the entire world. I believe a lot of positive energy is thrown into the universe through this event.
With the shape this world is in right now, we need all the good we can get. I’ve always managed to set November aside to participate in the adventure. Every year I’ve surpassed the fifty-thousand-wordcount goal. This year will be a challenge.
The Vampire Study and Challenge
I’m moving out of my comfort zone about as far as a writer who has her mind stuck in a series she’s worked on for five-years can venture. I plan to write a vampire fantasy book this time around.
The idea started when I found a copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in a second-hand bookstore. I remembered reading somewhere Stoker had created the perfect villain when he conjured up Vlad the Impaler. I needed to learn how to write a good villain for my series. One who gave a slick first impression before he moved into the monster territory. What better example could I find than Dracula.
By the time I read to the middle of the book, I had realized Dracula was one of the most wicked personalities ever to emerge from a writer’s mind. I also came to see there was an entire literary genre dealing with the vampire. I wanted to learn more about blood-suckers in literature.
Therefore, I devised a sort of class for myself where I devoted my reading to the vampire. My assignments were to read every literary blood-sucker book IO could find and analyze them to uncover the mystery of the vampire. Thus, I read everything from Dracula to Andrew Fox’s Fat White Vampire Blues. I found some real jewels along the way.
I enjoyed S.S. Bazinet’s Vampire Reclamation Project. Her work deserves to be looked at when you study the genre. George R.R. Marin’s Fevre Dream was worth the read. KIt inspired me to set the first part of my NaNoWriMo challenge in New Orleans at the start of the Civil War. The test to see if I can pass my own self-made class will be the completion of the Nanowrimo with fifty-thousand words.
I am a panster. Outside of the little research, I only have a vague idea of what this novel will be about. I started this blog in September. I’m still an amateur at creating these posts. Consequently, I believe this year’s NaNoWriMo challenge will be my biggest one yet.
To intensify the drama, we are planning a trip to New York City to visit our big city kid. I must be a glutton for punishment to even attempt the NaNoWriMo challenge this year. It will be interesting to see if I manage to pull off the fifty-thousand wordcount this year, especially since I’m no Ann Rice or Stephanie Meyer. It will be an adventure to see if I can make the writing flow or if I’ll run into a logjam made up of useless words.
Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana, who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh. To read more of her short stories and adventures click here.
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