NaNoWriMo: 7 hours and counting
NaNo 2015 is only 7 hours away.
That’s exactly 7 hours to finish the major plot editing for the prequel to my NaNo 2015 Novel.
“Blood of the Phoenix,” a novel aimed to reach nearly 100k. This is my goal for November of this year.
Two years ago, I wrote the prequel to “Blood of the Phoenix,” which was the novel known as “The Moon Assassin.” I like to play around with war, and the first book of the Moon Trilogy was just that...but instead of happily ever after when the two kingdoms made peace, it just triggered the beginning of the end of the world. And that set the stage for “Blood of the Phoenix.”
Writing novels takes a lot of time and energy, and I’ve run into more than a few writers who have tons of ideas, but no inspiration to finish them. I had the same problem myself, for the past two years. I would try to start a new novel, with a new idea, sometimes a new world, and always with new characters. Two years ago, in 2014, I tried the same method I had used for the previous five years but I flunked NaNo at 7k. It broke my winning streak and maybe my heart? I still can’t quite tell.
I found a solution to this problem. At first, to find inspiration, I tried writing longhand. It helped break down that writer’s block, but I still faced the same block when I tried to write on the computer. So what to do? The problem remained. For this year’s NaNo, I went through three ideas with no avail. I kept losing inspiration, I lost the creativity, I had no interest, and I kept changing my novel titles and synopses. And this bugged me. I just couldn’t find an idea I was passionate about.
Then one day it hit me. I had over 6 series/trilogies/sagas with the first book written, but no second book. My problem was I couldn’t hold inspiration, right? What better way to hold inspiration than edit one of these first books, and write the sequel for NaNo? And it worked.
Since I discovered this method, I have shared it with writers facing the same dilemma. And so far...it’s been a success. What will you try?