A Novel Idea

As some of you know, I'm working on a novel.

My major in college was Professional Writing, which required a class called Writing the Novel for graduation, in which you (surprise!) write a novel. Although I did well in the class both times I took it, I wasn't at all happy with my first two novels and thought that I could have written something better, or at least something less monumentally stupid. After graduation, I kept thinking about trying again with a different genre, or better characters, or a more intriguing plot, but I couldn't ever quite come up with the discipline required to write a novel that wasn't being graded.

Last October, Randy found a mention of an event called NaNoWriMo, where participants write a novel (or at least the first 50,000 words of one) in a month. It sounded intriguing, and I decided to give it a try. I was even, maybe, just the teensiest bit smug about my chances of succeeding, since both of my previous novels were about 50,000 words and I had written each of them in about a month, completely disregarding my professors' advice to spread the writing out over the full semester.

It was exhilarating, at first, to fling myself into a novel with no outline, no plan, only a few characters and a very hazy idea of where I was headed. But after about 17,000 words, I started to lose steam. I was writing myself into corners and I still didn't know where my plot was going, and I was really starting to like the story - I was worried that I was going to screw it up. So I didn't finish it, and then November ended and real life intervened.

I still really liked the story. I had good characters, and I thought the plot had promise. Best of all, this novel was actually interesting, in a way that the first two just really, really weren't. Since November, I've thought of it often and worked on it rather less so. But recently, I've come up with a plot - a complete plot, with no gaping holes or fatal flaws, and good characters doing interesting things. (I hope!) I'd like to finish it up over the next few months, in time for this year's NaNoWriMo.

So, I wanted you all to know I was working on it. Please, feel free to ask me at frequent intervals how it's going. Be disappointed in me when I haven't written anything since last Tuesday. Be pleased for me when I've gotten four chapters and a plot twist done since Thursday. It's a young adult fantasy novel. I won't be posting any of it online, since that's tantamount to publishing it and I could then only sell re-print rights. But I can tell you that it contains: a heroine with a mysterious past, a hero with a tragic past, an evil prince, a mystical necklace, a black fortress, and a legendary dagger lost for centuries. I'm really excited about it!