Save the Dragon: my NaNoWriMo project this year

Announcing this year's NaNoWriMo project: "Save the Dragon"!

That's right, I'm going back to my fantasy roots.

The gist of the premise is: What if the princess captured the dragon, instead of the other way around?

But I'll let my project summary do the talking:



The dragon-keepers of Red Country and the dragon-slayers of Green Country are age-old enemies. When the Green Princess Mëiyandë manages to capture the fabled fire-breather Vartarkaan, she threatens to upset both the balance of power and the natural equilibrium. 

Akiin, a dedicated but naïve young squire who feels responsible for the dragon's loss, sets out on a quest to free Vartarkaan. Things are complicated, however, when Akiin realises that the Greens are not as evil as the Reds have always said, and that Princess Mëiyandë may in fact be a puppet to a greater evil.



For this first draft, I am gendering all characters as female and changing some to male in post-edits, so that I am writing with no male-default gender bias.

The culture of the world is a hybrid of numerous Indo-European cultures, with two constructed languages.



Cover photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org ("The Two Brothers" by Elenore Abbott, 1920).

NaNoWriMo 2016, Day 17

Well, it turns out Plan B was the superior plan all along! (Plan B being the plan to continue writing a project I'd already started if Plan A, the new project, failed miserably, which it did).

I've written nearly 13,000 words of Plan B over the last THREE DAYS, which is the most I've written in the shortest period of time all month. I'm now nearing 30,000 words, and I'm back on track! The NaNoWriMo is projecting that, at the rate I've gone, I will finish by November 30. Hurraaaaaaaaay!

I won't say what Plan B is yet, except to say that it's one of the ideas I've shared on this blog before. I think I've even shared an excerpt. With any luck, it should be done or very close to done by the time I finished NaNoWriMo. So, let's hope I keep on track! Very optimistic. :)

NaNoWriMo 2016, Day 14

So, a crossroads has presented it before me.

As you may know, I hit the ground running this NaNoWriMo. I hit 10,000 words in the first 3 days and remained ahead of the deadline for the first week. But now I've run out of steam, and I can't seem to push past 15,000. I'm far behind the expected number of words at this point.

I don't necessarily think I am lazy, although it is true that I will often bail on novel ideas when they get tough. In "Delusions", the story that I am working on now, I made a loose outline, I made in-depth character descriptions, I did all the prep possible ... I just didn't factor in one thing: my main character is boring as hell, and I've been hating him more and more the more I write ... or try to write.

It's going to take a lot to get me out of this gridlock. It's not writer's block. It's the fact that I've become totally disillusioned with what I'm trying to write. Thankfully, though, I have a contingency plan ...

I have a work-in-progress that's been going on for years, which is currently about 70,000 words long. It will probably take another 35,000 words before it's finished, which is the exact amount I need to finish NaNoWriMo. Should I go finish this novel, which I already love, or go at a snail's pace with this idea I now - if not hate, need to give a complete makeover - at the risk of my sanity? I feel like I have to love something to write it with any kind of skill or passion, or is that just quitter's talk?

I'm too busy today to write anything, but I will update the blog in a couple of days to see where I go.

NaNoWriMo 2016, Day 7

I haven't updated my blog at all over the weekend, mainly because of the shame! Today was alright, but from Friday to Sunday I barely scraped 2000 words. Not great progress! But thankfully writing 10,000 in the first 3 days was enough that I'm still ahead. I just need to be very diligent this week!

As I have assignments due in the next couple weeks, I don't think I'll be quite as prolific as last week, but my personal aim by this weekend is still 25,000. After the 14th I will have enough free time to bang out the second half of my novel, hopefully in under a week, so that if a catastrophe happens I have a week of grace.

That's the plan anyway!

Hope anyone who reads (again, why?) is also semi-enjoying their Monday.