www.inkthinkerblog.com — In a fit of creative bravado, I signed up for National Novel Writing Month this year. Although I’m on track with my word count (3,700 at the moment), I’m still not entirely sure what I’m writing about. This became abundantly clear to me last night at the Richmond-area kickoff party, when I gave a different answer to everyone who asked me to tell them about my novel. Here’s what I ended up deciding on for my NaNo profile page, subject to revision:
Kaylee Marsh is a college junior who knows what she wants in life. That’s the only reason she can manage her 18-credit course load and three part-time jobs. But when her younger brother dies back home, the bottom falls out of Kaylee’s world and she has to figure out what’s really important.
To anyone who knows me, it’s obviously an autobiographical novel. I don’t usually recommend that format for most writers because they are too in love with their words to understand the need for revision or why their brain dump is not immediately publishable. But I’ve been needing to write about my brother’s death for some time now, and I think this will give me a means to do it while still enabling me to distance myself from it.
But who knows. I’m expecting this bad boy to evolve over the next month, and I’m looking forward to it with a mix of apprehension and excitement. It’s been a long time since I’ve made time each day to write something for myself, so regardless of how the month ends, I think this is going to be an invaluable process and experience.
Are you NaNo-ing this year? How’s it going as of Day 2? Leave a comment sharing something about your book or your experience thus far.
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