Wednesday begins another round of NaNoWriMo for me.
What is NaNoWriMo?
It is the National Novel Writing Month. Started – hmmm – over a decade ago, I think, this is a challenge for hopeful and established writers to spend the month of November with a focus on writing 50 thousand words on a novel.
I have participated in this challenge, on and off, since 2017, and have hit the 50K word count three times.
One of those successful challenges resulted in Echoes of Dragons, my debut novel.
This year, I am focusing on my foray into Christian Science Fiction.
I already have 6k words invested on Valiance (tentative title), and adding 50k during the month of November will certainly get the novel well on its way to completion. My total word count goal for this project is between 90k-100k prior to editing and rewrites/revisions.
Today and tomorrow, I am focused on prepping for this narrowed focus.
Most writers use the month of October, or at least the week leading up to NaNoWriMo, to plot out their projects. I am not much of a plotter, so I tend to do things a little different. Last week, I focused on editing the second volume of Short Stories From Mythnium, as well as writing several more chapters for Companions of Dragons (second book in the Awakenings series.)
However, I did do a little prep-work for Valiance. I am taking a few courses on writing, and have been using what I am learning in one course to help me work on character development. Today and tomorrow, I will further expand on developing my main character for Valiance, as well as begin working on developing the character of “evil” that will be present in the story.
I will also jot out notes for several chapters, or at least the main plot points, to help me keep the story going in the correct direction. Granted, the way I write, this will probably morph and change as the story progresses and as the characters take on lives of their own, but the notes help me brainstorm.
This year, I am also joining an online chat for my regional area. This is a first for me. There are live events in my region, but between the distance to travel to attend them and my introversion, I am not likely to attend any of those live events. Rather, I hope to be at least a weekly participant in the online chats and accountability check-ins.
Over the month of November, my Monday blogs will be summaries of how much I have accomplished, or not. I hope to also share snippets of whatever I worked on, insights into the main character, or peeks into the world, which is Valiance.
But first, here is a quick blurb for Valiance (you can read more in this post):
The story centers on Jena, a young doctor, who has acquired an actual leather-bound copy of the Holy Bible. She discovers faith in something long felt, but never seen. As her faith grows, a presence of evil makes its appearance to the settlers in her town. Forced to rely on her newfound faith among people who have no ability or desire to understand, Jena sets out to find the source of the evil that is harming her community. As she does, she finds that the God of the Christians of Earth is not just God over Earth, but is God over all, even to the far reaches of space. But is His promise and hope enough to conquer the pervasive evil that had long been dormant on Valiance?
If you are also taking part in the NaNoWriMo23, tell me so in the comments. I still don’t know, after all these years, how to connect with other writers ON the NaNo site, but I’d love to try so we can work to encourage each other along the way.
Until next week…