#rose does nano

[sebastian-writer]

I know this is against the rules but I’m going to give myself a head start for NaNo because I know now that there will be days (probably a lot) that I won’t be able to write ://

[misscrawfords]

Going to my first Nano write-in. Very nervous!

And, like, I haven’t written anything for about three days thanks to being sick and stressed.

I mean, I don’t really care about my word count - I care that I have a story that I’m excited about, but I don’t want to be judged by hardcore strangers. Though I guess they could be nice???

Anyway, that’s where I’m off to now!

[misscrawfords]

Nano idea is coming along. Here is the synopsis!

It’s 1934 and Jane Atwood is the star athlete at her Swiss finishing school. However, when she receives a letter from her late mother’s sister on her eighteenth birthday, she discovers she has inherited much more than a castle in Scotland and she finds herself in unexpected danger. Also starring: Lord Creighton, Jane’s moody and byronic father, glamorous Aunt Cass and her band of rather special ladies, and a beautiful foreign prince with strange abilities who appears in Jane’s dreams and may or may not be real...

... And that’s about it. I have a few more ideas and things are starting to vaguely take shape in my mind, but it’s all rather sketchy and I’m clearly going to be making it up as i go along. It’s also getting increasingly fantastic so I have really no idea what genre to list it under for Nano purposes.

Is it Historical? Is it Adventure? Or is it Fantasy? Is it Young Adult? I mean, that might well be the best catch-all genre for it.

It’s basically what would happen if Star Wars met The Princess Diaries with a shot of Indiana Jones and the aesthetic of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.

Also it needs a (temporary) title.

[misscrawfords]

The fun thing about not really knowing what is going on in my story and literally making it up as I go along, is the plot twists are so wild and unexpected even to me!

Today, for instance, I decided my anti-hero trash son is going to kind of sort of accidentally murder the person he was sent to protect. YOU HAD ONE JOB, LORIAN. ONE JOB. No idea how and this will involve some plotting, but it is going to be cool.

He's also gained a lesbian step cousin who should be queen with super diplomatic skills and who is so done with everything. Her sudden appearance in the narrative in a passing comment surprised me too but she's clearly going to be the best character in the whole thing.

My heroine is still boring af and I don't know what her deal is yet. I should start writing her scenes soon so hopefully she will reveal herself to me soon.

[misscrawfords]

Lorian is SUCH a Ravenclaw.

I think Jane is a Gryffindor. Maybe a Hufflepuff, but probably a Gryffindor. Also she now has daddy issues by the shed load. Good oh. So apparently that's now a theme. Her bff Samira is 100% a Slytherin and is the purest cinnamon roll to have ever existed.

[misscrawfords]

I’ve just started reading through the story I began to write for Nano last year and my boy Lord Lorian is the most extra, all black wearing, cloak twirling, dead-pan snarky little shit ever and I love him.

Most of the first chapter is cringily badly written but Lorian shines through beautifully!

[misscrawfords]

I haven't written any of my Nano story for weeks (THANKS REPORT WRITING HELL) but this just popped into my head earlier today and I liked it. Takes place waaaaaaay ahead in the story.

~

The queen tilted her head. "For a nobody, you sound like you think you're a somebody."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Jane queried. "I have as much right to my opinions as you do. Your Majesty."

She was not trying to be rude, only truthful, but it still sounded insolent. In the odd little space in her head that Lorian now occupied, she felt his smirk and felt buoyed by it.

"Do you?" The queen did not sound angry, only faintly amused and curious. Jane knew she ought to tread carefully but she had never been very good at subtlety. "You are here, in my throne room, in my castle, where I am queen - and yet you, an illegitimate foreigner barely more than a child, come here and talk to me as if we are equals."

Jane shifted from one foot to another and leaned on her hockey stick with both hands, her elbows locked straight. "I don't know about that... I don't pretend to be Royalty or your Majesty's equal. But you asked me here. I'm not going to prostrate myself."

The queen laughed slightly, a cool sound. "You modern women!"

Jane could not tell if it was meant as a compliment or an insult.

Definitely an insult, said Lorian. And then added a moment later, But I like modern women.

She was not sure what she was meant to do with that information. From the faint traces of embarrassment she was picking up, she did not think Lorian knew either.

~

Apparently Jane takes her hockey stick EVERYWHERE including to audiences with royalty idek.

[misscrawfords]

Extract from my Nano

“So what do you think it all means?”

Samira put down her pen, folded her hands on top of her exercise book and fixed Jane with a look that was supposed to emulate the earnestness of an analytical professor but just made them giggle. “Clearly, Fraulein Atwood,” she began, “your dream represents an anxiety surrounding your father.”

“My father?” Jane raised her eyebrows.

“Yes. The young man is a representation of your father.”

“Sam, that makes me feel very uncomfortable considering the implications you made earlier!”

Samira shrugged. “Dreams are meant to make you uncomfortable. You are dreaming about this young man because you wish to understand your father and his past in relation to you. That is why you are also dreaming about his mother.”

“So his mother represents…?”

“You of course.”

Jane blinked. “I am my father’s mother?”

“Natürlich. What did you think? Dreams are never about what they appear to be about. They are always symbolic.”

Samira met her eyes very seriously. Jane narrowed her eyes but it did not have any effect on her friend’s equanimity.

“Fine,” she said eventually. “Tell me this, if I really did want to dream about a handsome prince to marry, what would I have dreamed about?”

“Your father probably!” retorted Samira with a gleam of mischief.

Jane growled and gave her a shove. “Gott in Himmel!”

~ currently untitled Nano project