My Nano Novel: Last Days

I've been piddling around on which story to pick for this year's Nanowrimo. Usually I pick an outline that has been sitting on my computer for years, waiting to be told. Last year I invented an entirely new story, coming up with about 30 characters, an entire plot, and a few key scenes all in about two days and only a week before November 1st. This year, I'm picking something that has waited almost a year for attention.

I had first decided upon my Jane Austen-esque YA novel, The Gardens of Bidding Hall, something I began in 1995 for my Junior English class in high school. It wasn't received too well, at least not the first chapter. My teacher said, "You write along the same principles as Charles Dickens, going on elaborate tangents which, eventually, all tie together, but leaves the reader guessing at their importance in the meantime." To this day, I'm not sure if that was a compliment or a criticism. I assume it was both. Anyway, I thought I had only the first couple chapters written and an outline for the last scene, I checked it again and I've already written 22,000 words, nearly halfway through the Nanowrimo goal of 50,000 words, so that one's a no-go.

Then I realized I had this mainstream fiction "what if the afterlife is all bureaucratic" type of story, nothing but a rough outline, a first paragraph, and the last page written out. That's more in the spirit of Nanowrimo, to write something from almost scratch, notes and outlines allowed, but not completed chapters.

Thus... (drum roll please) ... Last Days will be my Nano novel this year. Huzzah!

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"Welcome to the Last Days. Be sure to fill out all forms."

Elizabeth "Lizby" Siddall has recently killed herself. She ends up in the Last Days Department, a bureaucratic sub-section in Purgatory for people who commit suicide with no other major sins against them. They are given the duty of living out the last days of terminal patients who have prayed for God to end their suffering. They have a time period in which they must live through the sufferings of that person, anywhere from a few days to weeks. They have some flexibility in what they do with their time, but there are plenty of rules.

1) Don't reveal anything about the afterlife.
2) Don't cause the death of others.
3) Don't do anything that might damn your host.
4) Don't kill your host.
5) Don't save your host.

But when Lizby is put into the body of an old man who doesn't have to die, she begins to want to live... and that's against the Last Days rules.

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Like it? The plan is that each chapter follows what person she "possesses," seeing different lives, feeling physical pains, witnessing emotional upheavals of those realizing the person is about to die, and slowly being redeemed.

It follows religious ideas I don't personally believe in, but it's a fun story. The idea of a literal bureaucratic purgatory is fun, and this will also be my first attempt at writing an entire novel in first person. I experimented with that in I Saw Lydia Cry, another not-quite-completed novel, where Lydia is telling her story first person, a journal she left behind, but many pages are missing, so the story is interspersed with interviews of the other characters who fill in the missing gaps plus details Lydia herself never knew. I'd like to tackle that story again; however, I wrote it in 1994, so it's outdated politically and technologically and in dire need of a plot overhaul, not something for Nanowrimo.

So this is a good change for me, something more mainstream, something actually publishable. I have hopes in it, and hopefully the economy changes so I can publish some of these things. Bad economy means bad book sales, so I have to put everything on hold... grrr! >:(

[activate optimism]
Which means it's time to build up a buffer of novels!
Weee, Nanowrimo Time Is Here!
[optimism activated]

Getting Closer to NaNo

It's about that time again, when I finish up whatever projects I have open, clear my mind from the inundating world I've been scuba diving through for months, and try to set myself up for something fresh, something new, something crazy and wonderful.

National Novel Writers Month - a.k.a Nanowrimo.

I'm already on the forums and chatting away with other writers. I've just finished what I hope will be my final draft of last year's Nano novel, Daughters of Ashby, which turned into a 2-parter both measuring slightly over 150k words. That's sort of big, but it's a historical fantasy so I hope it's not considered too long.

I also have my "brain break" novel ready. Sometimes I just have to break away from the novel I'm working on and try something totally different for a day or two. This is dangerous during Nanowrimo when a writer is aiming to create a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, but for me it's mandatory for my creativity. So my brain break will be my first Nano novel, Ghost Coast, which sadly did not win, coming to a dead halt at 42k word, 8k short of the goal but ended as a completed novel. I've since rearranged a whole lot, cut and pasted the entire timeline of events, and added an intense romantic element which I hope helps with sales. To complete my remake, I need to add three chapters. That's my brain break.

Other necessities to setting up for Nanowrimo is non-messy snacks for writing sessions (nothing that will gunk up my keyboard), lots to drink, and a plan for what days I can go out for write-ins. I tried attending write-ins for the first time last year, and it was loads of fun. Just sitting in a room with fifty other novelists is somehow inspiring, knowing I'm not alone in this creative force. I think our Muses combine and reinforce one another.

I'm currently reading The Various Shades of Fangline by Colby Purcell, which she posted on Blogger one chapter at a time, much of it being pushed out through November. I like that idea. I don't have a big following like her (although, if I could draw better, I would totally turn some of my stories into online comics) but perhaps I can get opinions, comments, and generally a good idea if what I'm doing works. Posting chapters online is dangerous (anyone could steal it) but I might give it a go. Still debating this idea.