I've written 2,500 words on my new NaNo book. Sorry, Tiger, you've been kicked out of the NaNo club. Enter The Dragon Whisperer, which has managed to engage my interest. I may not have to give up in frustration after all!
I am having fun, oddly enough. Yesterday Mom and I took a two-mile walk down by the river and discussed our NaNo projects. We came up with enough of a plot for me to get started, and we both agreed that we needed to approach our projects without such grim determination.
My starting idea was: a woman who used to be famous for communicating with animals and making them do her bidding had to retire from the business when her ghost friend--whose ability she was using--vanished. Now she's been called out of retirement with an offer she can't refuse.
Within 500 words, I'd given the woman an interesting job in a shipping office. She's pretty sure her boss is a pirate. I immediately started to change the idea, morphing it into something that would allow the maybe-pirate to be involved. As of now, the maybe-pirate was injured when his ship ran aground during a storm, and he told the harbor authorities that the woman is his wife and she's just now gotten him home and is about to find out what he's up to. Fun!
On the other hand, you will notice that I have not named the poor woman. Her current name is _, which is not a name at all but a placeholder. I think she goes by May but it's short for something longer. This is the first time I've written this much into a book without knowing the main character's name. At least it's in first person, because otherwise the page would be sprinkled with underscores.
15 comments:
Good for you on the new premise. Give your mum cheers from me as well.
Go girls!
Ghosts AND a pirate? You minx : )
The story sounds really interesting. It will be interesting to see what it morphs into.
That's great that you managed to switch gears so quickly and create a new NaNo scenario.
BT--she's so far ahead of me on the wordcount that I can barely see her on the horizon. :)
Natalie--And I'm probably going to throw in robots and zombies too.
Diana--I'm just letting it go where it takes me. It may or may not make sense at the end.
Alan--I think I stripped my clutch doing it, though. :)
Yay for finding the NaNo book...I knew it was in there.
I, too, have my interest piqued by the possibility of a ghost and pirate.
Good luck with the new idea. I am sure after a grueling marathon you just got through with Bell-Men that this will seem like a walk in the park. We can always hope anyway.
Ooh, I work in a Shipping Office... Though it's an unexciting one. No pirates that I'm aware of.
Aaron--and a dragon! Possibly, gosh, possibly a ghost dragon who's also a pirate.
Jamie--Part of the problem is that I want to keep writing Bell-Men. I'm actually rewriting big huge chunks of the ending. Now the two projects are warring it out in my mind.
Cate--Are you 100% sure about the pirates? (Although it turns out that May's boss is more of a smuggler than a pirate. Maybe your office is full of smugglers!)
You should give your primary characters very lengthy names--say, from Johnny Dangerously, "Mary Margaret Catherine Denise." And always refer to them by their full names. Go go gadget word count!
That's why Jack's pub in Jack of All Trades was The Hare and Hounds. Four words every time I mentioned it!
What a great idea. Glad to see you're all inspired.
I am having fun now, fortunately. I've nearly caught up to where my wordcount ought to be too.
Ghosts and a pirate - ok, great start, endless possibilities.
Is it me, or are pirates getting more popular than ever? Or were they always so intriguing?
I've been thinking the same thing about pirates, actually. I wasn't going to include any pirates in this book since they're so overdone lately, but, well, they're also fun to write about.
Post a Comment