Writing Updates + Nanowrimo
First of all, holy crap, Nanowrimo is soon. It's a good thing I know what I'm doing, and know quite a bit about what I'm doing, because it really snuck up on me. September seemed to go by really fast, at least for me.
So this year for Nano, I'm doing a complete rewrite, rehaul, reboot, whatever you want to call it, of my 2011 Nanovel, Deathwalker. I really prefer to do brand-new stories for Nanowrimo when I can, and I'm a little bummed that this is the second year in a row that I'm doing a rewrite, even if it is a complete rewrite. But nowadays, as I'm seriously looking towards publishing, I find I have to consider my future plans for writing more than I used to. Also, although I'm not a super detailed outliner, I've also found that I do better on a new project when I've had it rattling around in my head (marinating, as I like to say :P) for a good several months first. And the two new-ish ideas that I've had lately have not been marinating long enough for me :)
So, Deathwalker. Deathwalker is about a teenage girl who is shot and killed walking home late one night, and finds herself transported to a sort of purgatory-like afterlife, where she joins other, well, dead people, who are known as Deathwalkers. Deathwalkers have been entrusted to basically guard and maintain this afterlife. However, as the story goes on, it becomes clear that their mission, and the afterlife itself, isn't quite what it seems.
Deathwalker was the first YA novel I ever wrote, and the first novel that I wrote after, like, at least a 3 year, unplanned break from writing (I did write some fanfic during that time, though). When I first wrote DW, I was complete a discovery writer, i.e., I did no outlining or planning of the plot at all - in fact, I didn't even do much worldbuilding. I came up with most of the characters about two weeks before I started writing it, and entirely made it up as I went. I was really happy with the way it turned out, especially as I was coming off a long writing hiatus - I loved the characters and the themes and the core of the story. When I tried to write the sequel, though (it's a planned trilogy), I realized there were a lot of gaps in the plot, and I ended up coming up with a back-story for the whole thing that was cool, but contradicted some of the plot in the first book. So eventually, I decided to just rewrite the whole thing.
So I'm pretty prepared for the rewrite, I think. I made a list of about 10 scenes from the first draft that I really like and want to keep, though I will likely still rewrite them, because one of the major changes I'm making is that I'm completely replacing my female protagonist with a different female protagonist (she was quite a flat character). I've also completely outlined the backstory. I still don't have a completely outlined plot, but usually, so long as I know the major plot points going in, I do all right.
And some updates on other writing projects:
You might remember I was writing Ocean, Dark and Deep, the third book in my fairy tale series. Unfortunately, I halted progress on that one entirely, for now. It was something I decided to do, and I'm not totally giving it up - I will go back to it eventually, maybe next summer. I was sort of struggling with the story, and continually behind on where I wanted to be with it. I just felt I needed a bit of a break from that particular series; I wrote the second one over the summer, and just felt a bit burned out from it. On top of that, I have not been prioritizing revisions on the first fairy tale book, Rotting Beauty, which I should have done. I really want to begin submitting that one to publishers before Nanowrimo, and I'm going to be really pressed to make that goal as it is, even without doing any writing right now.
I also have a currently untitled, post-apocalpytic story that takes place in the near-future, in which giant monsters (think Godzilla or kaiju from Pacific Rim) have invaded and destroyed most of civilization. I just thought I'd mention this one because it's the only other project I have that I was seriously considering doing for Nanowrimo. I still kind of want to, because it's been rattling around in my head for a couple years now, so I'm ready to write it. And on top of that, I had a weird dream the other night that kind of helped me figure out two big plot points of this book? But, I recently realized that it's going to be really, really long - it's not YA, it's adult fantasy, and I'm planning it to be a whopper, broken up into 4 parts that will be around 50K each. I usually aim for around 100K for Nano, and on top of that, I really, really like to finish my novel by the end of Nanowrimo, because if I don't, I have a tendency to abandon the project entirely. (Don't ask me why, because I do write year-round, but that's my experience with Nano novels). And there's just no way I could write 200K in a month. Not happening. So, I think I will save this story for after Nanowrimo.
Yeah, so, right now, pre-Nanowrimo, my goal is to get revisions done on Rotting Beauty! I seriously have been so bad and not worked on them at all in like, a month. I'm revising for description right now, which I seriously HATE doing. But, it must be done. And then I'm one done with description, I basically just need to edit for grammar and word choice and little nitpicky things, I think. Oh, and get my query letter together? I have sort of a rough draft of it, but like, really, really rough.
Otherwise, I'm just waiting for the Nanowrimo Forums to reset, which I'm always really excited for! Usually they've reset by now, so hopefully it'll be like, any minute now?
So this year for Nano, I'm doing a complete rewrite, rehaul, reboot, whatever you want to call it, of my 2011 Nanovel, Deathwalker. I really prefer to do brand-new stories for Nanowrimo when I can, and I'm a little bummed that this is the second year in a row that I'm doing a rewrite, even if it is a complete rewrite. But nowadays, as I'm seriously looking towards publishing, I find I have to consider my future plans for writing more than I used to. Also, although I'm not a super detailed outliner, I've also found that I do better on a new project when I've had it rattling around in my head (marinating, as I like to say :P) for a good several months first. And the two new-ish ideas that I've had lately have not been marinating long enough for me :)
So, Deathwalker. Deathwalker is about a teenage girl who is shot and killed walking home late one night, and finds herself transported to a sort of purgatory-like afterlife, where she joins other, well, dead people, who are known as Deathwalkers. Deathwalkers have been entrusted to basically guard and maintain this afterlife. However, as the story goes on, it becomes clear that their mission, and the afterlife itself, isn't quite what it seems.
Deathwalker was the first YA novel I ever wrote, and the first novel that I wrote after, like, at least a 3 year, unplanned break from writing (I did write some fanfic during that time, though). When I first wrote DW, I was complete a discovery writer, i.e., I did no outlining or planning of the plot at all - in fact, I didn't even do much worldbuilding. I came up with most of the characters about two weeks before I started writing it, and entirely made it up as I went. I was really happy with the way it turned out, especially as I was coming off a long writing hiatus - I loved the characters and the themes and the core of the story. When I tried to write the sequel, though (it's a planned trilogy), I realized there were a lot of gaps in the plot, and I ended up coming up with a back-story for the whole thing that was cool, but contradicted some of the plot in the first book. So eventually, I decided to just rewrite the whole thing.
So I'm pretty prepared for the rewrite, I think. I made a list of about 10 scenes from the first draft that I really like and want to keep, though I will likely still rewrite them, because one of the major changes I'm making is that I'm completely replacing my female protagonist with a different female protagonist (she was quite a flat character). I've also completely outlined the backstory. I still don't have a completely outlined plot, but usually, so long as I know the major plot points going in, I do all right.
And some updates on other writing projects:
You might remember I was writing Ocean, Dark and Deep, the third book in my fairy tale series. Unfortunately, I halted progress on that one entirely, for now. It was something I decided to do, and I'm not totally giving it up - I will go back to it eventually, maybe next summer. I was sort of struggling with the story, and continually behind on where I wanted to be with it. I just felt I needed a bit of a break from that particular series; I wrote the second one over the summer, and just felt a bit burned out from it. On top of that, I have not been prioritizing revisions on the first fairy tale book, Rotting Beauty, which I should have done. I really want to begin submitting that one to publishers before Nanowrimo, and I'm going to be really pressed to make that goal as it is, even without doing any writing right now.
I also have a currently untitled, post-apocalpytic story that takes place in the near-future, in which giant monsters (think Godzilla or kaiju from Pacific Rim) have invaded and destroyed most of civilization. I just thought I'd mention this one because it's the only other project I have that I was seriously considering doing for Nanowrimo. I still kind of want to, because it's been rattling around in my head for a couple years now, so I'm ready to write it. And on top of that, I had a weird dream the other night that kind of helped me figure out two big plot points of this book? But, I recently realized that it's going to be really, really long - it's not YA, it's adult fantasy, and I'm planning it to be a whopper, broken up into 4 parts that will be around 50K each. I usually aim for around 100K for Nano, and on top of that, I really, really like to finish my novel by the end of Nanowrimo, because if I don't, I have a tendency to abandon the project entirely. (Don't ask me why, because I do write year-round, but that's my experience with Nano novels). And there's just no way I could write 200K in a month. Not happening. So, I think I will save this story for after Nanowrimo.
Yeah, so, right now, pre-Nanowrimo, my goal is to get revisions done on Rotting Beauty! I seriously have been so bad and not worked on them at all in like, a month. I'm revising for description right now, which I seriously HATE doing. But, it must be done. And then I'm one done with description, I basically just need to edit for grammar and word choice and little nitpicky things, I think. Oh, and get my query letter together? I have sort of a rough draft of it, but like, really, really rough.
Otherwise, I'm just waiting for the Nanowrimo Forums to reset, which I'm always really excited for! Usually they've reset by now, so hopefully it'll be like, any minute now?