motorcycle

Prepping for NaNoWriMo 2017

I’m impatient to get going this year. I mean, there’s always some impatience going in, but this year feels stronger than in the past. It’s a mixture of excitement and anxiety. And just plain, “But I wanna!”

I realize that I didn’t actually blog about NaNo at all last year. 2016 was, as I’ve said before, a very weird year. It was our second month in a new country, and there wasn’t much to do but write. I finished early and went over the requirement. It was a good year, if a strange one. IN HER OWN SKIN is now out in the query trenches.

This year I feel much more like myself. Being in a house that is ours helps. Having my own room helps. Having my study back helps.

I’ve got an utterly massive outline (9300 words!) that I’m reviewing for holes. It’s so big because I have new critique partners this year (Thank you, Query Kombat for putting me in touch with such awesome people!) and I wanted to make sure I got them totally oriented in my world.

That’s right, we’re going back to the Cranbrooks this year.

UNCHURCHED is the book of my heart, or as close to that as I’ve yet come. I am determined to make this book work. This is going to be the fifth time I attempt to write this story for NaNo. I mean, I’ve done it before. I’ve written drafts that won. I’ve also failed mightily on this book. (There was the year I got in a car accident and was put on a muscle relaxant, and there was the year of Hurricane Sandy when I was stranded in the Caribbean… At least my excuses are interesting.)

The thing about this book is, it’s the book I’ve done the most learning on. Like, it’s as if I got a DIY bicycle kit and spent ten years messing around with it and on it and now it’s a beaten up mess but it has an engine so technically it’s a motorcycle now not just a bike. I’ve tried experimental parts shipped from odd corners of the globe. I’ve ridden it through all sorts of weather and had it break down on me over and over again.

But it still rides.

So I’m going to write this book again. It’s changed a lot from even the last major draft, so it’s gonna be a wild ride.

Wish me bon voyage!

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