Nano 13 (3) & new project

So Nanowrimo is officially over for me. I've finished my Nano project, changed and tweaked a tonne of things in the last week of writing, and tomorrow I'm moving onto my next project after cramming in some world building planning today.

My personal goal for Nano 13 was 40,000, which I am happy to say I surpassed! I would have completed and 'won' had it not been for me running out of plot and book at 47K. It's my shortest first draft by far (now complete at 58,000) so I'd expected much more content to write for Nano. I would have won, had I not already written the first four chapters, but when inspiration strikes it's a mistake to ignore it, even if it is the middle of October.

Either way, I'm happy to have set a personal Nanowrimo record. Next year I am going to write 50K, and I am going to win if it kills me.

Moving on, my next book is a science fiction YA, involving alien planets and interstellar travel (why is there a lack of this hard sci fi in YA? Can teenagers not understand the complexity of space travel? A ship?? That moves through space?!! No, thank you, I can't understand. I can only read about things that exist. Vampires, for example. Those are all the rage for teenagers.) 

The book and plot kind of attacked me all at once when I was watching the 50th anniversary. I'd read five sci-fi novels, had been watching Pacific Rim religiously, and it hit me all of a sudden that I needed to write a science fiction book. Needed. I'd been putting it off for years, really. Growing up with sci fi, I put a lot of pressure on myself to wait until I had the perfect plot and characters, until I was Super Experienced to write sci fi. Watching Doctor Who, I realised that was kind of dumb. I can write sci fi now and write it in ten years when I'm more experienced. Hell, I can write a hundred novels.

So Nano 13: total success. Bring on next year, when I'll probably be writing the sequel to this year's book.

~Saruuh

Nano 13 [2]

I sort of suck at remembering to make posts. I've been so busy with Nanowrimo and with everything else going on in my life that this is my first update post!

What I'm writing for Nanowrimo 2013 is the first in a potential YA fantasy series called The Legend Mirror. The first book's called The Red of Callaire (Callaire being the semi-fictional town in which the book is set) and it tells the story of Yasmin Wikke, a girl with Psychic Majick inherited from a God (her mother, Venus), who changes from human to Manticore form once a month and (to put it bluntly) slaughters people without her say so. The book is all about her struggling to stay 'human' despite the beast's hold on her, but also how her life is altered when she begins hearing the voice of a girl crying out to her. There's a lot of magic, a cast of diverse characters in the form of The Red, and plenty of references to creatures of myth and Roman Gods.

It's entirely different to the other books I have written in the past and miles away from The Lux Guardians so I'm quite enjoying playing around with the world and the characters and the magic. There's a freedom to fantasy that you don't find anywhere else. The science fiction I write, while being different from the world now, is still somewhat limited to our reality. If, say, a mad scientist who had invented a Super Dangerous Device started doing sorcery ... it'd be a little odd. There has to be science very much rooted in the story and the plot of the book, but with fantasy anything can happen. I can defy the laws of nature, and I do exactly that in The Red of Callaire. It's quite fun!

The very early summary of RED is as follows:

Yasmin wants to be normal.

She will never be.

Yasmin is a descendant of the Manticore, a creature of Persian mythology, a Legendary. She spends her life working in the local bakery, estranged from a group of Legendaries called the Red, and pretending she doesn’t change into a murderous beast every full moon.

When she hears a voice in her head and sees dreams that aren’t her own, she’s led to Fray—a girl who once saved Yasmin from hunters, who has shadowy memories that hint at her being Legendary.

Despite the danger around her and Fray, Yasmin might finally have a chance to be normal. But when Legendaries are being killed, a war between the Gods is brewing, and the beast inside Yasmin becomes stronger each day, her mundane life seems impossible.

I've written 30K+ this November so far, and hope to write at least 10K+ more! Here's hoping the rest of November goes as well as the beginning.

~Saruuh