Basically, I am taking a break. I have to. I keep forgetting every time it rolls around. But at the end of the year (and the start of the next year) it is too hot to do anything.
My Beloved talks to me about the idea of having two houses, one in the Northern Hemisphere and the other in the Southern, that way we could move back and forth to the best season. I love that idea, not just because it means we get to jet around the world and I would get to be a global citizen, but because it means I get to avoid my dreaded Summer Brain Melt, which slows my writing down to a sticky, sweaty crawl, every year. Hell, I actually wrote this blog post three days ago, but I'm posting it now because I kept forgetting to do it.
But anyway, back to NaNoWriMo. So, how was the last stretch of writing? Well, I didn’t actually get that much writing done. But, there is some news to share. I went on another Field Research expedition. This time, to a reserve by the Brisbane River. I enjoyed the experience, but unfortunately I didn’t know that “recreation reserves” weren’t just grassy parks. See, when I looked it up on Google Maps, the damn thing looked like a park. I just wanted to go there so that I could get some accurate pictures, and some references for proper imagery. On the one hand, I am incredibly glad that I went out there, because I never could have imagined what I discovered there. But on the other hand, I wish that I had some more warning that some of that reserve was like a damn swamp.
I own waterproof boots, if I’d known it was a bog, I would have brought them. But no, when I got to the co-ordinates that I was searching for, I had to cross a marsh dotted with little islands of grass and weird, red and thin finger-like tendrils which crunched underfoot.
It helps my story, because I wanted the ship to crash here, and being so . . . well, gross, means that people would be less likely to discover it before my main characters do. But, at the same time, I was planning on having the characters face off against a little robot there. The water would make it incredibly hazardous for the little robot, so I will have to plan the story accordingly.
I have the story planned out, and I am officially half-way through! But . . . I’m not actually done. I mean, I’ve written two thousand, two hundred and forty-six (22,464) words, that’s actually less than half of my fifty thousand (50,000) word minimum. But . . . I am not that hard on myself. Because I am not one hundred percent.
Hell, in the three days before this all started, I wrote sixteen thousand, five hundred and fourteen (16,514) words for the Goosebumps Chillogy. I wrote that in three days, and that’s not even including the other blog posts I wrote. That’s almost 40,000 words of fiction written in 30 days month (if I ignore the first five days of November, due to the reboot, then it works out to 30 days).
So, I am still confident that I did a really good job. Sure, it may seem like a technicality, and I definitely failed to reach my aspiring word count, but I don't "feel" like a failure, I haven't fallen prey to the shame-driven aspects of NaNoWriMo.
Because whilst I didn't write the full novel, did write a butt-load of words in a short amount of time, and that makes me happy.
But now, because of the heat, and because I have been writing non-stop for almost a month and a half, I am taking a short break. I will get back to writing this after Christmas, depending on how the heat treats me, but I am leaving it mellow. I feel accomplished, and I am not going to rush to get it done . . . at least, not for a week or so. I need to rest my poor, beleaguered brain.
However . . . see, I couldn’t help it. My brain does this to me. I came up with some ideas for a sequel. Now, the stupidest part of this is that I decided ages ago that this would be a standalone. This would be on its own, it won’t be connected. No series, no franchise, nothing. Just one story, alone. And a while ago, I was thinking “could I go more?” but I thought, no, I don’t want that at all, in fact I can’t. Because the idea of this story is alone, and if I tried to continue this story and build upon it, that would ruin the story in my head. I want my main character to finish her story on the last page. Then she can retire and live a life of wonder.
So, I thought “No, I can’t do a sequel, because that’s when her story ends, I can’t have another story about her.”
Then my sneaky, evil brain said to me:
“Well, could you make someone else the main character?”
Well, yeah. Yes, I "could", but I don’t have any idea who that would be.
“Really? Well, then why not find out?” said my brain.
So, I started building an idea for a sequel, and that’s what I will be working on and developing in the intervening time, the characters, plot and themes for the next story in the ‘Urban Sci-Fi trilogy’.
“Oh, so, you have an idea for two sequels?” I hear you ask.
No, not at all. But hey, it sounds fun, and I can already see that not all of the ideas I have for the sequel will fit into the one story. Although, I will be working on some other stories as well, I don't see myself writing the sequels straight away, unless the first one becomes crazy successful.
I’m the Absurd Word Nerd, and that’s what I’m working on whilst not writing blog posts. I hope NaNoWriMo treated you well, it wasn’t too harsh on me. Let me know if you’ve gotten anything done, I’d love to hear about it.
