A while ago, I kept posting updates on social media (and on here) about Camp NaNoWriMo. Welllll, that's back next month and I'm participating again. Bring on strain headaches and whirlwinds of progressing and aching from writing so much! No, honestly I love this. It's what I live for. So my November will be spent writing 50,000 words of a new project. Notably, my fifth manuscript drafted this year.
But before I can go ahead with that, I need to finish editing. Remember my Alice in Wonderland twist? That's FINALLY being edited. It's sort of ironic for me because this was the story I wrote for NaNo back in July, so I'm literally coming out of one lot of that, into another straight away. Hopefully, with no breaks. (Because taking breaks like that damages me more than constantly not taking breaks.) I'm just under halfway my first edits on MAD REBELLION and when the 18th of this month arrives, I'm going to start planning my new NaNo project. Then I'll dive right into drafting that.
Why put myself through so much stress? Because my brain doesn't like to turn off. It constantly throws up ideas at me and I have to sift through those and find which is bad and what can actually work in a developed story. This new project has been in mental planning for a while now (Dayna, my best brain-storming partner, I adore you) and I'm finally getting to extensively write it all down in my notebook to go ahead in November.
It's another twist, not on one story but rather eight. The concept is this: What if those shiny Disney girls we grew up with had their stories make them assassins rather than princesses? I'm taking that what if, taking the girls down to their origins again and put into a story set in Underground Paris. Each assassin has their own reason and past that drives them to kill diplomats, high-society ladies and lords and anyone they're sent to. But when their leader, Teiran, is kidnapped and hauled onto a ship, they must forget their own personal vengeance paths and help her. But in doing so, they become more than fellow assassins to each other and actual people with stories beyond their weapons.
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As a reader, attending author talks/signings is enjoyable. As a writer as well, it's a source of advice straight from people who are in the industry I want to be established in. In January, I met Katherine Webber, author of WING JONES just after her debut. She's the only author I've ever got to talk personally to about my own writing. In the group, she talked about how NaNoWriMo was a massive factor for creating WING JONES, how she pushed on with this writing event. For me, this is incredible motivation to have. When I got talking to Katherine after getting my copy of her book signed, I explained how I was working on my own draft. She told me that any progress is progress, whether it's just 100 words a day or 1,000. It's still something. She told me how to manage interfering story ideas when I need to finish the one I'm writing. Her advice was invaluable to me and remains my most inspirational encounter. I'm a harsh writer on myself; if I want to write 2,500 words on one day, I'll do anything I can to reach that. If I don't, I make myself write more the next day. Unhealthy, maybe, but it works for me in terms of self determination.
In July, I drafted 50,000 words of MAD REBELLION and it was hard. I think I cried when I was finished but it was so exhilarating to know I'd actually just reached those lengths. I got a certificate for that achievement and it's stuck to my wall, above my desk where I write, to constantly remind myself that I'm a far better writer than I always think, that I can set large goals and reach them with the right steps prior to drafting. But those reminders from Katherine Webber always echo in my head, reminding me that even if the world is hard one day, there is always another day and they go on with so many chances to do more when I can.
I quit everything in life when it gets too hard but never writing. When writing becomes hard for me, I steel myself and hit back at my manuscript harder than before, determined to prove to myself that I can do it. That writing is something I can never quit because it's a massive passion that I thrive on.
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