NaNo: T Minus Two

Image www.zmescience.com

It's October 30th, the day before Halloween. I've managed to reach my goal of finishing a book translation within one month, typing nearly 123,000 words. So the typing isn't the biggest concern for November's NaNoWriMo. (Although my wrists and hands kind of are...)

The past week or so I've been trying to develop the story that's sprung up a few weeks earlier. I'm settled on my main character, although at first she was a sixteen-year-old and a week later I wondered if I shouldn't make her twentysomething or even early thirties.

Right now she's back to being a teenager again. But now that that's settled, the "big thing" that is supposed to be going on with her manages to remain an elusive concept. Yes, I can give her certain abilities or powers that may or may not prove to be paranormal. The question that I can't seem to answer, however, is: what is she going to do with these abilities?

What keeps going through my head is this:
- Whatever I come up with, is bound to have been done before
- Whatever is up with my protagonist must be spectacular or special enough to carry at least one entire plot.

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NaNoWriMo: ready for the challenge

Image: http://ditchingthemasks.wordpress.com/

NaNoWriMo sounds like a great big challenge. And I like a good challenge. Although I prefer those that I know I can actually win. Starting out with a blank page on November 1st is something I can already envision. Stretching my arms and fingers, cracking a few knuckles without meaning to... And yet, my worst fear is ending November 1st with an equally blank page.

I've stared tossing ideas around in my head. So far, I think I may have a protagonist. I think I know her age and her family circumstances - although some details aren't fixed yet - and I think I know what her 'thing' is. I don't want to call it a problem, because it isn't, and I don't want to call it a gift, because I don't want to splash any paranormal or supernatural stardust over anything that I haven't decided to be paranormal or supernatural yet.

While I'm milling over these basics and wondering what ingredients I can start adding to that story so that it will develop into something bigger, there is also a niggling doubt... About another character that I thought of months ago, someone who also doesn't have a proper story yet. I know I want to write about her too, but I just can't see what's happening to her yet...

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