Camp NaNoWriMo

Camp NaNoWriMo started on the first, and I am so there!

Okay, "there" is a website where you track your progress and distract yourself from what you should actually be doing, by reading tips and inspiration, messaging other people with similar goals, and updating your novel info. Instead of actually writing it. 

In general, I'm pretty much a pantser. Which means I write by the seat of my pants, not just ON it. (Okay, I rarely wear pants, but that's another story.) This time, however, since I have put myself on a pretty tight deadline (2 novels done and revised by September) I am planning. Planning is hard, but probably not as hard as going through the first draft thinking "was I asleep? How's someone going to have sex with an exploded rib cage?" or "Wow, that's out of character" or "Wait, I thought his name was John, not James".

Normally it doesn't matter. I have all the time in the world to figure out where the scene in my head fits into a bigger picture or who the star of the bigger picture is and then they kind of carry  it from there.

Normally I've got all the time in the world to turn some nonsense into a plot, fix names, dot T's cross I's and go back and realize I got that backward.

So I decided that with some kind of rough outline, I should be able to stay mostly on track. It starts with the characters.

Actually, in this case, it started with a bar. Then the characters came along.

I came up with Antonia Weathers, TV weather girl, legit meteorologist, and part time Zumba instructor. I needed her to be in shape for the adventures to come, and Zumba seems like the perfect balance of energy and agility. Plus, as a half-Brazilian, half-English American girl, I think that it also kind of kicks off the image of a smiling, busty, dark haired super-energetic outgoing woman who sometimes doesn't get taken too seriously.

Then I decided that the hero would be a kind of… accidental murdered turned assassin. He's special, and because of his unique gift he never fit in anywhere. The first people to take him in are on the wrong side of an elemental war. He loves them like family, the only family who ever excepted him.

The bar is a bar for elementals, people with unique power over elements, to relax and be themselves. They all exist in harmony at this particular bar, Thirteenth Floor. Thanks to a brief stint in a journalism class, Antonia has gained lifetime membership and the story opens with her at the bar on a Friday night. He is there, watching her, trying to figure out why she is so special and how she has access.

He had to trick his way in, too, since he isn't one of the four classic elementals. His element is electricity, which is far more rare, mostly because it presents in more subtle ways.

They meet, something happens where she is exposed as a Void, an anti-elemental who absorbs elemental powers. They end up falling in love somehow, more stuff happens, and then he either switches sides or…. something…

I'm bad at plotting, okay? I already admitted that!  

So far I'm just over 1,000 words in, so I'm pretty much already behind. Luckily all I have to do is invoke the power of "I'm asking for your support here", and my man will (okay, should) basically take care of whatever I need. I'll be putting that to the test while trying to knock out 70,000 words this month. 

But hey, I get a fun graph to track my progress with!