In September, when my youngest child starting going to preschool a few hours a week, I decided I needed to take my writing seriously again. It’s been far too long since I sat down and wrote something. So I set out to do NaNo this year.
Planning the project took some time. I didn’t want to just wing it (or ‘pants’ it). I actually went back to a world building post I wrote here, and tried to create a story in that world. But all my old tactics weren’t working. I just couldn’t come up with a story I liked.
So I turned to my new source of inspiration, my kids. Rex – my oldest – is really big into geology and wanted me to write about magic crystals. Rocket – my youngest – wanted an adventure story with ninjas. Trying to incorporate their ideas I came up with an idea. An alternative history based in the colonies of America in the mid-1800s. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t mesh the history with the story.
So one night, while laying in bed I saw my character fully fleshed pop into my head. She was a thief who had stolen something made from magic crystals, and she was running from the police in a fantasy world. It had similar technology to the mid 1800s of our world, but with a fantasy world I could dictate the magical and political laws of the land to make my story fully come alive.
By November first, I was ready to write.
And it was wonderful. I had missed writing.
I won with just over 50,000 words written at the end of the month, but this book needs another 40,000 at least to be finished. And I fully intend to finish it, and the next two books in the series (because the story really bloomed this month).
Right now it’s called One Last Job, but I really don’t like the title. Once I finish the book I hope I’ll have a better one.
Anyway, thanks for reading. December and January are not the best months for me mentally so I hope to finish this book up in March. Wish me luck.