Gosh, I really haven't posted in a while, have I?! Well, apart from that last post I put in a few moments ago, but that's not what I meant. I haven't told you that I had my fourth Nanowrimo attempt, and my fourth win in November. Wonderful fun.
My novel was entitled Firejuggler, and I managed to write the entire thing in the month. My official word count was 113,114, which I reckon was a pretty intriguing number to come up with with absolutely no way of being able to tell what would come out the official word count machine since Open Office is rather more generous in counting words (and don't ask me how a word count can be different depending on who counts it--it's a mystery that puzzles me as well). It actually went surprisingly well. I had one character which showed up, then I decided I didn't want it, then I figured that actually, I did need that character after all. I did that last year as well actually, with a similar sort of character. Hmm. I also had a couple of other unexpected characters, and the grand scheme of the plot appeared when I was 60,000 words in, and then when I was 100,000 words in, and trying to actually follow a plan I realised that actually, the plan had it all wrong and the conclusion would be reached in an entirely different manner. So that needs smoothing over, and there's one or two extra scenes I need to bob in, but it's remarkably intact, considering the whole thing showed up in a month and that I started with a scene and two main and one minor characters. The rest of it just appeared as I wrote (and as I pondered it too, I guess).
Nanowrimo really does represent a remarkable creative event. There'll be another one next year, and I strongly recommend you get involved if you've ever considered writing a novel. Or even if you do write novels. It forces you to write and not worry too much about those niggling little details and the words that you can't spell and the occasional clunky sentence, and instead to tell a story. And let's face it, even if you've got the best writing in the world, if your plot is utter drivel no one's gonna enjoy it (the reverse is also true--although I'm more likely to persevere with an interesting plot and bad/mediocre writing than good writing and no/boring plot).
Should I tell you a little more about Firejuggler as it turned out to be? Oh, actually, I had the title right from the start as well which is pretty unusual for me. My story folders are full of things like 'Football Start.4' and 'Nutmeg's First Day' and 'Random Story'....
Sha is a firejuggler, but he wasn't always a wandering entertainer. Once, he was a respected soldier in the Royal Army, but after the Protector took over England, things for Sha have gone from bad to worse. Persecuted not only for his ties to the 'ancient regime' but also for his refusal--indeed, his physical inability--to give up practising the highly addictive fire magic, he's serving the resistance movement as a messenger as well as doing 'tricks' to earn coin. Until he discovers that the princess, rightful heir to the Naablian throne, is not dead as everyone thought but is very much alive, even if she doesn't know who she is and is utterly oblivious to the magic bubbling up inside her, ready to explode from her when the protective curse laid upon her at birth to prevent her using it until she turns eighteen. Princess Graci is forced to leave her home, embark on a rather perilous journey, and learn about the magic Sha insists she should have known about from birth, that she should have been taught about so that she can control the addictive impulses of the magic. The trouble, as she rapidly realises, is that Sha himself is heavily addicted to the magic. While it makes him a powerful practiser, it also leaves him with headaches and vulnerable to apparently random destructive whims.
And I think that'll do as a plot description. There are soldiers, dragons, plots, arguments, and orphans involved too, but I don't want to make my summary too complicated now do I?
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