Remember at the beginning of the month when I asked for a brief description of what you thought you were going to write about? (Do you still have enough brain cells to remember the beginning of the month, when you were so full of hope, energy, and time?) Tell me where your novel ended up! Did you scrap it? Did it turn into something else? Is the plot and characters so awesomely awesome that you have a new one line pitch for me? Also, what you do you plan to do with your NaNo novel now? Going to revise (and revise and revise) before you query it? Or shelf it and get going on another?
Happy writing! (go take a nap!)
13 comments:
I got 20,000 words into my novel and then on November 10th I decided I had a better idea. So I put the first one aside and worked on the second. I reached 52,000 words in 13 days! I literally couldn't type fast enough!
It's not quite finished yet, but it will be soon. Then I will edit and edit and edit...:)
My how-NaNo-went story is similar to Kelley's.
*waves at Kelley*
I was about 20k words into my manuscript (around Nov/7), when another shiny idea got to me. On Nov/24 I won NaNo with that second manuscript.
Now the second manuscript's first draft is finished, with 60k words (though it might increase during revisions).
My plan is to edit during December, then hand it to my beta-readers ... edit it again ... then we'll see!
Oh, the one line pitch! Almost forgot ...
GYPSY HEART (working title)
Mirella is finally overcoming her major trust issues when she discovers her mother lied about their heritage--as Tziganes, they are powerful, special, and hunted.
I already knew it, but I just confirmed I suck at one-line pitches, especially from the top-of-my-head ones lol
Loved the NaNo experience and I won. Ended up with 84k+. I need a few more chapters in the middle and then it's edit,edit,edit. I can see by my word count,I'll be doing some serious slash and burn. I'm going to see this one through to print.
One line pitch: "Sandra is in love with Everett, but they have a serious problem, Everett died over a hundred years ago."
I'm a plotter who started my NaNo novel with only a description paragraph and nothing else, but as I wrote, the novel stayed on track and my ideas came, grew, and evolved. I got stuck sometimes, went back and added scenes several times, but now 72k in I'm happy with where it's going.
"Foster kids with superpowers" was my pitch. The plot grew a lot of legs over the month--I'm just about to 50,000 words but there's still some story left. My only qualm is that I'm telling it in first person from 5 different POVs, and not sure this will fly. Will revisit after completion.
I stayed on track with mine. I had it all plotted out, reached just over 50k last night! Now I am sending it out to my two critique partners and then starting edits/revise next week. Then when those are done going to send it off for a professional edit, make suggested changes after that then e-pub! Hoping to have it available by mid January.
This is the first in four years that I didn't "win" Nano, and you know what? I'm good with that. I have over 30K of this new novel and I still like it. I did write every day in spite of a horribly busy day life. The plan is to continue writing to the end of the story the first half of December and then take a break until January. Then I'll start revision, send to my crit partners and repeat as needed. :)
I haven't really worked on a one line pitch for it yet, but it would be something like this:
A teen who never believed in faerie tales finds the secret world of the Fae watching her and hoping she will be their champion.
I finished the 406,000-word sequel to my long Russian historical novel early in the month and moved onto the third book in a contemporary historical fiction family saga. I've written almost 50,000 words of that, though that wouldn't qualify me to win NaNo, seeing as I'm estimating the book will be around 150-200k when completed. That's actually short for one of my non-YA books!
My pitch (it's somewhat of a modern retelling of Margaret Sidney's 'Phronsie Pepper'):
Justine’s jealous feelings at the birth of Julie’s first child are quickly turned around when she reconnects with David, now 25 and a Ph.D. student at SUNY Albany, with the five-year difference between them suddenly no longer so inappropriate. Unfortunately, her older siblings and their friends have a hard time seeing her, after years of being the precious family baby, as a grownup woman who's old enough for marriage, motherhood, and moving out with her new family. But then, when her young nieces become Duranies, things start to turn around, and there's an unexpected opening for Justine to finally prove herself as a mature, capable grownup once and for all.
Other than a few twists and turns my story stayed true to my original idea.
Millie is transported back to the worst night of her great grandmothers life in 1925, where she believes she can right the wrongs of the past, but what she doesn't realize is that these wrongs are meant to be a bigger lesson for the present.
Wow, I really need to work on my one line pitch.
Congrats to everyone that made it to 50k.
My original idea just couldn't sustain 50k word. But then an unforseen interdimensional conspiracy arose and gave it a whole new life. I'm putting it aside until after new years and then will mold and shape it until it all makes sense. Good luck on revisions everyone - it's what separates writers from wanabees. That, and a good spell check :)
I stayed pretty well on track and finished on November 19th (at a nano write-in YAY).
One sentence pitch: Against the backdrop of a small-town sex scandal, teenager, Sonny, questions his own burgeoning sexuality.
The focus of my book changed radically, though more because the idea was bigger than the 51k I needed to complete Book 1. My NaNo went back to the genesis of the idea, which was focused more on Nat, a young cabin boy caught between his ambitions to be a captain and his privileged upbringing. Samantha (the fugitive natural) is critical to the story, but her focus part has slipped mostly to Book 2 of this upper MG/early YA Steampunk story.
A young cabin boy struggles to overcome the crew's suspicions about his privileged upbringing in a world changed to focus on industry rather than position. When a stowaway accidentally implicates him in theft, Nat must prove he's innocent before the crew's distrust wins over the good will he's earned and Nat ends up hanging from the yard arm.
As far as plans, I was in the middle of an urban fantasy edit when NaNo hit, and with work stuff, I wasn't able to get much done on that on top of NaNo, so my plan is to finish the urban fantasy edit, and then tackle what was named "The Natural" but now needs another title, though that may end up being the series title.
As far as brain cells, I took time off to read a book and relax, which is why I didn't catch this post until now. Hope you're enjoying your blog break.
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