Well I’m hip deep in NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month. November to some means growing facial hair for charity and for slightly insane people like me we take on the goal of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. It’s the end of the 18th day and I’m doing well with 33, 146 words into my romantic fantasy novel, The Page & The Magician, which is a mix of deeply spiritual concepts, modern dating woes, and fantastical characters like a green-skinned, voluntarily beardless dwarf who bakes muffins. And of course, there is sex and glorious battles too. Much of the book happens in Ottawa, Ontario with segues into places I haven’t decided upon yet.
This is actually more than I have written on another novel that I’ve been working on for 4 years. I feel a bit ashamed at myself for that, but I know what has been a key differentiator for me with this new novel: character development. Prior to starting November, I used D.N. Frost’s character tarot and did an extremely thorough mapping of who my main character is. This has helped me figure out some things on supporting characters, but it’s also been immensely helpful for me in generating ideas on how to keep pushing my story forward.
I plan to do some serious development on my main characters for “Scion” sometime after NaNoWriMo is done. I have a feeling my current piece, “The Page & the Magician” may get finished before Scion does as I’m on a roll with it. There have been many times over the month where I have found myself giggling as I write scenes. I’m enjoying writing fantasy as I can throw silly things in and have it be totally legit, which is not so easy with Sci-Fi.
At any rate, I thought I should post something to say I am alive. Tonight was particularly challenging as not only was I a little bit stuck, I injured my left pinky at martial arts the other night and each time I typed I would experience pain. Talk about negative reinforcement... I had to wrap my hand so only a couple of fingers could move and my pinky could be forced to stop typing. I never realized how much I use the left “Shift” button. I hope my finger doesn’t continue to be sore for long. That pinky is rather necessary for the martial art I do as the left pinky is integral to cutting with a sword and I have my first grading on December 6. I’ll power through any pain for grading, but I’m hoping it is resolved before then, so I don’t have extra hurdles.
I had to stay up late in order to squeeze the words out. It’s passed my bed time, so I’m off!
Ciao,
R~